Who is Otto Warmbier?

Cincinnati Enquirer

After more than a year imprisoned in North Korea, college student Otto Warmbier landed the night of June 13 night in Cincinnati.

The 22-year-old from suburban Wyoming, Ohio, reportedly has been in a coma since March 2016. What to know about him:

Otto was salutatorian at Wyoming High School, where he graduated in 2013. A prom king and homecoming king at the top-ranked suburban Cincinnati school, he was described by his soccer coach as a gifted, smart player and a leader on and off the field. He was a University of Virginia student when he visited North Korea with a tour group.

At the University of Virginia, Otto was a top student with a "prestigious academic scholarship intended for the most intellectually curious," according to The Washington Post. He was known as a sports fan, rap lyric aficionado and a deep thinker, the story noted. He "would challenge himself and others to question their place in the world ... an insatiably curious person with a strong work ethic and a delight in the ridiculous."
Otto went to North Korea with Young Pioneer Tours, a China-based tour company. He was arrested on Jan. 2, 2016, in Pyongyang, the nation’s capital.
Otto was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly stealing a poster from a staff-only section of a hotel in North Korea. In a televised statement in March 2016, Otto apologized and said he was impressed by the country’s “fair and square legal procedures” and its “humanitarian treatment of severe criminals like myself.”

Otto’s family heard from him only once during his 18-month imprisonment, in a letter dated March 2. In a statement to the Associated Press and other media outlets this week, Otto’s parents, Cindy and Fred Warmbier, said their family has been “brutalized and terrorized by the pariah regime in North Korea.”
Otto landed at Cincinnati’s Lunken Airport at about 10:15 p.m. Tuesday. He reportedly has been in a coma for more than a year. He was taken directly to the hospital.