The Dateline episode “A Good Son” investigates the 2014 murder of Pravin M. Varughese. The 19-year-old sophomore student at Southern Illinois University left a party and then disappeared. Four days later his dead body was found in the woods. The autopsy claimed Varughese died of hypothermia with “no signs of trauma.” His mother, nurse Lovely Varughese, saw her son’s dead body and knew his death wasn’t an accident. She sought justice. Lovely “turned her son’s memorial into a protest in the town square” and hired a private coroner to perform a second autopsy. That coroner concluded that Varughese died of blunt force trauma. Three years after Varughese’s death, in 2017, a young man named Gaege Bethune was charged with Varughese’s murder.
During his trial, Bethune said he gave Pravin Varughese a ride after the party and drove around while Varughese allegedly looked to buy cocaine. According to Bethune, they got into a fight over money. Bethune said he punched Varughese’s head and face which prompted Varughese to run into the woods where he died. In 2018, Bethune was found guilty of first-degree murder. After the verdict, Bethune’s father Don Bethune said “without question, social media buried my son alive.” Don Bethune mentioned seeing doctored photos of Varughese with significant bruises on his face and a video of someone (purportedly Gaege, but it wasn’t) carrying a dead body which was actually a musical instrument. His mother Penny Bethune agrees with her husband. She said, “After that verdict was read, I felt extremely guilty for not speaking up sooner, because maybe I could have saved him.” Gaege Bethune, now 23, faces 20 to 60 years in prison. He will be sentenced on August 15. Dateline airs Mondays at 10pm on NBC.
