DeKALB – A former Northern Illinois University student whose charred remains were found on campus last month committed suicide, DeKalb County Coroner Dennis Miller said Thursday.

Hasan Gill, 25, died of "thermal injuries and smoke inhalation due to self-immolation," Miller said Thursday. Miller ruled the death a suicide.

"Based on the evidence, we believe this was self-induced," the coroner said. "The NIU Police did a very thorough investigation."

Toxicology results showed no signs of drugs or alcohol in Gill's system.

Miller, who has been with the DeKalb County Coroner's Officer for 32 years, said it was only case of self-immolation he had ever seen in DeKalb County.

Shortly after the former student's death, a family member said Gill would not have killed himself and that the body may have been burned to cover up a more serious crime. Shahbaz Gill said he suspected murder.

NIU Police found no evidence of foul play, university spokesman Joe King said.

"Everybody came to the same conclusion," he said.

NIU Police found a note left behind by Gill and had video evidence and eyewitness statements that Gill had bought gasoline and a gas can shortly before he died on the morning of Dec. 29, King said.

University officials said the body was found by a person near a path behind the WNIJ-WNIU Broadcast Studios, 801 N. First St., DeKalb. Investigators found only one set of footprints in the fresh snow at the scene and no signs of a struggle, King said.

"This is a very sad and tragic case," he said. "Our sympathies and condolences go to the Gill family."

Gill had been an undergraduate in the university's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He was last enrolled at NIU for the fall semester. For academic reasons, he wasn't enrolled for the spring semester this year, NIU officials previously told the Daily Chronicle.