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Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism University of Southern California
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UC Berkeley Student Found Dead Near USC

The missing student was found dead near Vermont and Washington on Saturday, but his identity was not confirmed until Monday.

Eloi Vasquez, the missing University of California, Berkeley, soccer player last seen Friday at a University of Southern California fraternity party, was found dead on the 10 freeway near Vermont Avenue early Saturday morning.

The 19-year-old midfielder had wandered onto the onramp when he was struck by a Chevy Impala traveling at around 60 miles per hour around 2:25 a.m. according to the California Highway Patrol. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Vasquez was not carrying any identification at the time, which delayed identifying his body.

"The initial fingerprint return came back as 'No Record'. When we get that response from the local database, the fingerprints are then forwarded to the FBI and Homeland Security. Once we had a working name, we were unaware that his last name was hyphenated. Once we were provided with his full name, we were able to get his DMV print ... and were then able to compare with the fingerprints of the body with the DMV print," said Craig Harvey, chief coroner for investigations with the Los Angeles County Coroner.

Vasquez had travelled down to Southern California with some friends for spring break. He was last seen at the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity house when he disappeared at around 1:30 AM Saturday morning, telling his friends that he wanted to go on a walk. At around 2:15 AM, he called one of his friends in Berkeley, saying he was lost and scared. This was the last time anyone heard from Vasquez.

On Monday morning, the Vasquez family was offering a $100,000 reward for anyone with information on his location. His family had travelled from the Bay Area to help with the search.

Contact Benjamin Dunn here. Follow him on Twitter as well.

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