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Missing student's body found in pool
Chicago teen last seen in September

By Emma Graves Fitzsimmons
Chicago Tribune staff reporter
Published April 18, 2007
The body of a college student from Chicago was found on Monday in a country club swimming pool less than a mile from Grinnell College, where the 19-year-old disappeared more than six months ago, officials said on Tuesday.

Paul Shuman-Moore was last seen in the central Iowa campus on Sept. 25. His body was found Monday morning at the Grinnell Golf and Country Club when an employee removed the pool's cover for the first time since the winter, Grinnell Police Chief Jody Matherly said.

Police said the body appeared to have been there for possibly weeks or months. There was no evidence of foul play, police said.

Officials were not releasing the cause of his death Tuesday, but a news conference was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in Des Moines to discuss the results of an autopsy by the state medical examiner's office.

Shuman-Moore left behind a suicide letter, which has been part of the investigation, Matherly said. Shuman-Moore had been in his second year at the college.

In the days after his disappearance, authorities and hundreds of volunteers combed the area around the school, searching for him.

His parents created a Web site urging their son to "please come home" and posted news articles, videos and fliers. The site features photos of the Northside College Prep High School graduate playing the guitar and described him as a good student who had been looking forward to starting an experimental jazz show on his college radio station.

"For the past six months, we have hoped and prayed that our dear son Paul was alive," his parents, Steve Moore and Betsy Shuman-Moore, said in a statement. "Now that he has been found, we are devastated."

The news also shook the students at Grinnell College, a liberal arts college on a rural 120-acre campus with about 1,500 students. The school held a community discussion on campus Tuesday night with county mental health officials, school officials said.

"The Grinnell College community is deeply saddened by the loss of Paul," said Tom Crady, vice president for student services. "We mourn for Paul's family and friends, we mourn for our campus community and we mourn for a world that has lost a talented young man full of potential."