From what I remember reading when this was big local news, they checked Owen Hall extensively, but when it came to that electrical room, a maintenance person just opened the inside door and looked around, not wanting to go in there and check thoroughly because of the shock danger. As it turned out the kid was hidden from view from the inside door, and as he was newly dead then, didn't smell yet. And that was the only check on that room until he was accidentally found later on. By the way, when they found him, his body was still conducting electricity 
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wow......that sucks. that also answers part of how the cellphone may have given an erronous location. if it was on his body, the signal was most probably conducted through electical wires till it found a place to "leak" out.
You're right though, a trained searcher probably would have found him at the start of the whole deal; wouldn't have made him any less dead though. But his body might have been found in better shape which would have allowed toxicology to determine if he was drunk or not, which may have affected Purdue's liability one way or the other (especially given that he was under 21 and was seen at a party off-campus just before).yep. like i said, i'm not trying to brag, nor am i trying to put anyone else down. i feel confident beyond a doubt that everyone involved in that search did so to the very best of their abilities. the maintenance guy though.....he SHOULD have gone and gotten someone else if he was afraid of that room.
As for old cell phone vs. new, I have no idea, I just know in this case it failed to pinpoint his location, and in fact led them to the wrong place to do a detailed search. Given the prevailance of cell phones and the likelyhood of similar cases happening again, perhaps local law enforcement agencies should practice trying to find a cell phone planted somewhere as an exercise, to find out the limitations and accuracy, and so they aren't led on wild goose chases next time.like i said above, the signal could've traveled through wiring, or simply been bouncing around from building to building. you are right too, if they are going to do these searches themselves, they should be practicing.
we do it in CAP all the time. we have SAREX's at least once a month. more if we can.
Certainly not suggesting adding the ability to track anyone anywhere to cell phones or ID cards though, that ability could and would be misused.yes, it would be seriously misused, and in some places most probably already is.
all in all, this is the kind of reason we solicit our services around to the local, and state pd's, fema, homeland security, etc. we are very very good at these jobs. we have the best safety record of any single engine piston powered airfleet. most of all, we love what we do. it's not just a job to us.
