ROCKFORD, Ill. — Family members say a Nobel Prize-winning Purdue University chemistry professor was confused and searching for help when his wife’s body was found at a northern Illinois landfill.

The relatives told WTHR-TV in Indianapolis that 80-year-old Sumire Negishi was “near the end of her battle with Parkinson’s” disease and was traveling with her husband, 82-year-old professor Ei-ichi Negishi. The Ogle County Sheriff’s Office said deputies found Sumire Negishi’s body and the couple’s vehicle Tuesday at Orchard Hills Landfill outside Rockford. Shortly after, they found Ei-ichi Negishi walking nearby.

Family members say he was apparently in “an acute state of confusion and shock.” They say the vehicle was stuck in a ditch.

Ogle County authorities have said they don’t suspect foul play in the woman’s death.

Negishi won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.