Man Convicted Of Murdering Purdue Student Dead Of Apparent Suicide

The man convicted of shooting and stabbing a Purdue student to death on campus earlier this year has died of an apparent suicide. 

Cody Cousins shocked a courtroom full of people last month when he seemed to show no remorse for killing a fellow engineering major, declaring bluntly to a judge “I killed Andrew Boldt because I wanted to.” He provided another shock late Tuesday when he was found in a pool of his own blood at the state prison in Michigan City, apparently after slashing his own throat and arms with a prison-issued shaving razor.

He’d been at the facility less than a week and was still in a cell reserved for new inmates who were being processed. Indiana Department of Corrections Spokesman Doug Garrison says Cousins had arrived in Michigan City from the state prison in Plainfield, where he’d undergone a psychological evaluation – one Garrison says didn’t suggest he wanted to take his own life.

"All offenders are screened for psychological issues including suicide ideation while they're at Plainfield," Garrison says. "And nothing that happened at Plainfield gave us any indication this was something that might happen."

Tippecanoe County Prosecutor Pat Harrington, who tried Cousins’ case, says he’s grateful the act that ended the 24-year old’s life didn’t hurt anyone else.

“I was thankful that this only involved him making a decision about his own life,” Harrington says.

Harrington says he called Andrew Boldt’s family after receiving news of Cousins’ death, but he declined to give specifics about that conversation.

Cousins had been slated to serve a 65-year term for Boldt’s murder. Garrison says the prison is reviewing the circumstances that led to the death, but he doesn’t believe the prison will stop issuing razors to Michigan City inmates, a majority of whom have been convicted of murder.