Ball State University senior Derek Brewington has not been seen since Saturday morning, but university officials say they have a strong lead on where he might have gone.
Family and friends became concerned this week when they had not heard from him since Saturday around noon.
However, police have discovered today that Brewington sold his car, a white Buick Century, with Missouri license plates, to an Indianapolis dealer and bought a train ticket to New York, university officials said.
Brewington was last seen at FIJI fraternity house, 900 W. Riverside Ave., where he lives, his roommate, Mike Boles, said.
Boles said last week Brewington mentioned wanting to take a train to New York during Spring Break.
Boles called Brewington's parents on Monday night after he didn't return, he said. Brewington's parents also have not heard from him, and his mother, Marta Brewington, said they are concerned.
Boles woke up Saturday morning around 11 a.m., heard Derek Brewington in the shower and then went back to sleep, he said. When he woke up at noon, he said, Brewington was gone.
Boles said Brewington took his razor, new CD player, laptop and some clothes with him. He did not take his cell phone charger or toothbrush, Boles said.
"He didn't say anything to me at all, just left," Boles said, "and he didn't try to wake me up."
Brewington, who is originally from Wildwood, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis, has been unreachable by his cell phone, according to friends and university officials. When called, it goes straight to voicemail.
"Nobody's really sure where he's at," said junior Alex Greimann, a close friend of Brewington. "I've talked to his brother and a couple friends back at his high school, and nobody's seen him."
Greimann said he last saw Brewington on Friday night.
"We were at a friend's house drinking," Greimann said, "and we didn't come together and we didn't leave together. I just saw him there."
Boles said Brewington must have slept at his friend's house because he didn't sleep in their room.
"No one really knows what happened to him or where he went," Boles said. "Pretty much our biggest theory is that he just left."
It wasn't unusual for Brewington to just leave and not to tell anyone, friends said; however, usually he came back in time for classes. He always told his parents when he went places, his mother said.
FIJI President Shawn Meier said that's the reason it took people almost half a week to realize Brewington was gone.
"I'm hoping it's just another Derek Brewington episode, where he's just taken off for a few days to do his thing," Meier said.
He said, however, he and Brewington's other friends are starting to get worried. They have started a Facebook group, "Where the Hell is Derek Brewington?" which says if anyone has heard anything to contact his friends and family immediately.
"He is a guy with maybe a little eccentric personality," Boles said. "He likes to play Devil's advocate a lot."
Brewington joined FIJI in Spring 2005. Boles said Brewington was a pledge educator and had started a sober driving program, where two fraternity brothers would stay sober each night to give rides to people who were drinking.
He was also a resident assistant two years ago and a community aid at Scheidler Apartments last year.
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