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(NEW YORK) — The 20-year-old Purdue University student stabbed to death in his dorm room was effusive, close with his family and wise beyond his years, according to his parents.

Varun Manish Chheda, a senior majoring in data science, was found dead in his room on the school’s West Lafayette, Indiana, campus on Oct. 5 after his roommate called 911, university police said. The roommate, 22-year-old Ji “Jimmy” Min Sha, was arrested and charged with Chheda’s murder.

Although Varun was a busy college student, he always stayed in touch with his mom, dad and little sister. He’d call his mom between classes, share his Wordle score with her, and check in over text each morning and night, his mother, Seema Dedhiya, told ABC News in an exclusive interview.

On Varun’s final night alive, Dedhiya said she texted her son her usual evening message: “Eat well, sleep well. … Finish your homework.”

“He said, ‘Yes, Mom, I’ve done it all,'” she recalled.

She said Varun’s final text to her at 11:45 p.m. read, “Goodnight, Mama.”

Early on the morning of Oct. 5, two police officers came to the family’s door in Indianapolis with the tragic news. The 20-year-old suffered multiple stab wounds in an “unprovoked” attack, according to Purdue University Chief of Police Lesley Weite.

Seema Dedhiya and her husband, Manish Chheda, said they had no sense of problems with Varun’s roommate and said their son rarely mentioned him. They described Varun as a peacemaker, which they said made his violent death all the more shocking.

Varun was a minimalist and environmentalist. He never asked his parents for money and insisted he didn’t need a nicer car or nicer computer, they said.

He was passionate about Taekwondo, strategy games and especially science, said his father, Manish Chheda.

Varun was recently studying medical genomics and “was even thinking maybe of following in my footsteps and becoming a physician,” he said.

“How it would’ve turned out, we just only can guess at this point,” he said. “I think he would’ve been involved in … helping people face-to-face or in a research realm.”

He was a kind big brother and a thoughtful friend, his dad said, recalling the time Varun encouraged a friend to donate his long hair to cancer survivors.

“We think he did a lot of good in the time he had,” Manish Chheda said. “We’re proud of that.”

Asked what she’ll miss most, Dedhiya replied through tears: his laugh, his hugs, “his brilliance” and “all the conversations.”

“I miss him terribly,” Dedhiya said.

Manish Chheda said he doesn’t know when he’ll “be psychologically ready” to return to his work as a doctor.

“I need to be more focused than I am right now. We’re gonna get help, we’re gonna get counseling,” he said.

The family will “never be normal again,” but he said he hopes they’ll find a “new normal.”

“You can’t lose someone like this and ever get over it. But we have to try,” he said.

Sha has not entered a plea. As he headed to his first court appearance on Oct. 7, Sha told reporters “I am very sorry” when asked if he had a message to the victim’s family. Sha also said, “I was blackmailed,” but did not elaborate.

His defense attorney did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

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(NEW YORK) — As Florida officials and residents continue to clean up and assess the damage caused by Hurricane Ian, they’re discovering the storm has turned some electric vehicles into incendiary devices on roads, parking lots and even on the backs of tow trucks.

Electric vehicles that were flooded and damaged by the storm have been catching fire without warning in incidents throughout the hardest hit areas in the state, according to State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis, who told ABC News his team has counted at least nine such incidents. In some cases, the EVs would burst into flames, stay on fire, then reignite hours later.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has warned that EVs can ignite weeks after contact with saltwater.

As storms increase in ferocity, and the sale of EVs increases worldwide, it’s a phenomenon we are likely to see much more of says Eric Fredrickson of Call2Recycle, a non-profit which specializes in transporting lithium-ion batteries to recycling facilities.

“Part of what we’re dealing with right now is that this is the first major storm that we’ve had in an area where we have a high penetration of electric vehicles. So we’re seeing these fires in these incidents more than we have with any of the other storms,” he said.

It’s also a challenge for firefighters who have to use between 8,000 to 12,000 gallons of water to put out the fires, more than 10 times as much as a gas engine-based vehicle, according to James Hammond, the assistant chief of operations at North Collier Fire Control & Rescue District.

“It’s just a constant flow trying to cool them down and stop the battery,” Hammond told ABC News.

Hammond said his teams would typically spend an hour putting out a traditional gas-powered vehicle, but have spent five or six hours dousing electric vehicles.

Saltwater flooding is the main factor behind these fires, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The flooding creates a chain reaction in the engine and the batteries that made the parts more likely to catch on fire, the agency said.

The biggest concerns, according to firefighters and safety experts, is that it is still unknown what could spark the blaze in the first place. Something as simple as turning the wheel following the saltwater damage could start the fire in the vehicle, experts said.

The issue has gotten so bad that some tow truck drivers in Florida have refused to pick up flood-damaged EVs. Tim Baker, a tow truck driver, told ABC News that one car he picked up caught on fire after he brought it to his lot.

“They have the potential to catch fire pretty much any time,” he told ABC News.

NHTSA responded to a request by Florida state fire marshal Jimmy Patronis, who asked for guidance on the problem stating, “Lithium-ion vehicle battery fires have been observed both rapidly igniting and igniting several weeks after battery damage occurred. Timing of the fire initiation is specific to the battery design, chemistry and damage to the battery pack.”

The agency recommends that flooded EVs be parked at least 50 feet from any structures, vehicles or combustibles.

“Always assume the battery and associated components are energized and fully charged,” the NHTSA said in its letter to the state.

Patronis also called on automakers to work with the state to come up with solutions and procedures when dealing with the flooded EVs.

“As [EVs] grow in popularity, this is a potential threat that we’re going to have to deal with,” he told ABC News. “I want to create solutions that work, other than just providing water to try to control the temperature of a battery that is burning out of control.”

One solution is education, according to Fredrickson.

“We’re definitely going to see more cars flooded by saltwater if we don’t take steps to educate consumers about the consequences and the risks of an electric vehicle that gets flooded by saltwater,” he said.

Fredrickson said the simplest way of avoiding an EV car fire is moving the car away from a potential flood area before a major storm, and if a car is submerged in salt water unplugging it from the wall before power is restored could be key to preventing it from bursting into flames.

That’s a concern going forward, according to Bobby Schneider of the Energy Security Agency, a company contracted to help mitigate EV car fires.

He said there could still be hundreds of EVs stored in people’s garages in Florida that could turn into potential fire hazards once power is returned to the grid.

Schneider said that with the increased use of EVs, thousands of fire departments and first responders across the country need to be trained in “the uniqueness and particulars of the hybrid and electric vehicles.”

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(WASHINGTON) — In the wake of the Supreme Court overruling Roe v. Wade, the Pentagon announced Thursday that it will provide travel funding and approval for troops and their dependents to seek abortions outside of the states where they are based and where abortion is now illegal.

The moves are intended to address concerns about whether the U.S. military would be able to provide support to female service members who could be forced to travel away from the states where they were based in order to seek a legal abortion.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a memo on Thursday outlining new policies that will be put in place later this year. They are an outgrowth of a review of existing Defense Department policies that Austin had ordered following the Supreme Court’s decision in June.

The new policies will increase protections for the privacy of those involved and provide legal guarantees to military health care providers, who carry out the limited number of abortions covered by the Hyde Amendment, in states where abortion is not legal.

The military services already provide leave time to service members who have to travel for abortions, but the new policies will make it possible for service members to get the time off and be reimbursed for the travel costs to an out-of-state health care provider. The funding would not cover the cost of abortion services.

“I am committed to the department taking all appropriate action, within its authority and consistent with applicable federal law, as soon as possible to ensure that our service members and their families can access reproductive health care and our health care providers can operate effectively,” Austin said in the memo announcing the new policy.

“The practical effects of recent changes are that significant numbers of Service members and their families may be forced to travel greater distances, take more time off from puwork, and pay more out of pocket expenses to receive reproductive health care,” Austin continued.

“In my judgment, such effects qualify as unusual, extraordinary, hardship, or emergency circumstances for Service members and their dependents and will interfere with our ability to recruit, retain, and maintain the readiness of a highly qualified force,” he added.

Like the rest of the federal government, the U.S. military’s health care system remains covered by the Hyde Amendment that allows abortions only in cases of rape, incest, or where the mother’s safety is at risk.

A defense official told reporters Thursday that since 2016 the U.S. military’s medical professionals have covered 91 abortion procedures that were allowed under the Hyde Amendment restrictions.

Military service members who had wanted an abortion for a reason not covered by the Hyde Amendment had to look to outside health care providers to carry out the procedure.

The length of time that service members have to notify their commanders of a pregnancy will be increased to 20 weeks, a big change from the current rule that notifications take place two weeks following a positive pregnancy test.

The new policies will also provide legal cover for military doctors who have had to provide abortions covered under the Hyde Amendment in states where abortion is now illegal. There had been concerns that military medical professionals who carried out such procedures at federal military medical facilities in states where abortion is now outlawed could face the threat of local prosecution.

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(NEW YORK) — Students in K-8 schools in Texas are being sent home with child identification kits, meant to help identify kids in the unlikely event they go missing, get abducted, or are trafficked.

The kits are being distributed by local schools as required by an amendment to Texas’ education code law that passed in the state legislature in the spring of 2021. Texas Senate Bill 2158 mandates the Texas Education Agency provide “inkless, in-home fingerprint and DNA identification kits” such as the kits from the National Child Identification Program to kindergarten, elementary and middle school students and their parents or custodians.

The TEA confirmed to ABC News’ Good Morning America that the state agency provided funding to The Safety Blitz Foundation to work with the state’s 20 educational service centers to distribute the child ID kits through school districts and that the initiative first began in the fall of 2021.

In an email to GMA, the Safety Blitz Foundation said it had partnered with the state of Texas to send out more than 3.8 million child ID kits so far this year.

According to the National Child Identification Program, such kits, which are also sold for $9.95 on its website, include an ID card for printing fingers, inkless solution, a DNA section, a section to record a child’s physical description, space for a photograph, and a section to record doctors’ phone numbers. The kits have been endorsed by the FBI for at least two decades and are a program the American Football Coaches Association founded back in 1997.

Dallas Independent School District, the second largest school district in Texas, said it received 92,400 kits from the TEA and began distributing the kits this week. The district told parents and caregivers they have the option to participate or opt out of the program.

“Once received, parents can complete the form with their child’s information and store it in a secure location at home. Each kit includes instructions in English and Spanish; participation is entirely voluntary,” the district said in a statement.

The TEA also told GMA the kits are intended to be kept by parents and caregivers and provided to law enforcement if an incident does occur and the information would help an investigation.

The timing of the kits’ distribution comes just four months after the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which resulted in the deaths of 19 students and two teachers. After the May 24 shooting, victims’ families were asked to provide DNA samples to help identify their loved ones. Now, some question whether the new child ID kits being distributed could be used to identify children in future school shootings and say more action needs to be done when it comes to gun regulations and protecting students in schools.

“It was almost like the state just throwing their hands up and saying, ‘We can’t do anything about the guns. We’re not going to change any of the laws. So, therefore, the next best thing is to make sure that we can identify your K through eighth grader if they are killed in any type of school incident,'” Anthony Crutch, a Texas parent, told ABC News station KTRK-TV.

A financial analysis by the Texas Legislative Budget Board estimated last April the kit distribution program would cost about $8 million to implement.

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(NEW ORLEANS) — For 28 years, Kunta Gable, Leroy Nelson and Bernell Juluke were wrongfully imprisoned, convicted as teens for a fatal drive-by shooting in New Orleans that they did not commit.

The three men were finally freed Wednesday when a state judge vacated their murder convictions after prosecutors cited the interference of two notoriously corrupt police officers in their case.

Gable, Nelson and Juluke have reunited with their families and are now adjusting back to normal life.

Michael Admirand, Juluke’s attorney, said in a statement to ABC News that they are grateful to the court, the prosecutor and the District Attorney’s Office’s Civil Rights Division for their work in “correcting this grave injustice.”

“Mr. Juluke maintained his innocence from the moment of his wrongful arrest. I am relieved that he has finally been vindicated, if dismayed that it took so long,” Admirand said. “Nothing can make up for the three decades Mr. Juluke and his family lost because of his wrongful conviction, but thanks to the Court’s action yesterday, at least they will have their future together.”

Gable, Nelson and Juluke were arrested on Aug. 22, 1994, shortly after the shooting death of Rondell Santinac at the Desire housing development. Gable and Nelson were 17 at the time while Juluke was 18.

The state judge ordered the three men released, responding to a joint motion by a trio of defense lawyers and District Attorney Jason Williams’ Civil Rights Division.

After an extensive investigation by the division, which involved reviewing records and re-interviewing remaining witnesses, the motion outlined numerous flaws in the original case.

According to the district attorney, the state failed to disclose significant evidence that would have exculpated Gable, Nelson and Juluke, including a record of manipulating cases by investigating police officers, Len Davis and Sammie Williams, who were the first on the scene of Santinac’s murder.

Davis, who headed a small cadre of New Orleans police officers and their drug dealing operation, and Williams were infamous for tampering with murder scene evidence at the housing project to protect their network of local drug dealers and cover up the homicides they committed, according to the district attorney’s investigation.

Davis was even known as the “Desire Terrorist” for his dealings in the Desire and Florida projects, the motion said. He was later convicted for ordering the death of a woman, Kim Groves, because she had filed a complaint against him in a separate matter.

He was sentenced to the death penalty in 2005 and remains in federal prison.

Williams said in a statement to ABC News that Davis was widely known to have “wreaked havoc on marginalized New Orleanians.”

“There is extensive documented evidence that while operating under color of law he engaged in illegal drug trafficking, framed individuals who got in his way and even went so far as to order the murder of a private citizen who dared to report his systematic abuses,” Williams said.

Williams called it “unfathomable” that no agency had reviewed any of Davis’ cases during his “reign of terror” for 28 years until now.

The motion said the state also relied heavily on the testimony of their only eyewitness, Samuel Raiford, who claimed to be driving the vehicle with Santinac in the passenger seat. However, his statements, the motion said, were riddled with inconsistencies.

Still, prosecutors “vigorously defended” Raiford’s credibility, using it to undermine the defendants’ alibi witnesses as well as two additional witnesses claiming to have seen the crime and contending the defendants were not perpetrators, according to the motion.

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