A University of Iowa professor who faced criminal charges for allegedly offering female students A’s if they would let him fondle their breasts may be dead. The Des Moines Register reported this morning that the police have been searching a 185-acre wooded park this week where the political-science professor, Arthur H. Miller, left his car on Tuesday morning.

Inside the BMW, the police found his wallet and cellphone and a box of ammunition for a high-powered rifle that he purchased in June. Mr. Miller’s wife said her husband had left what she believes is a suicide note at their home.

“The ordeal of the last two weeks has become unbearable for Arthur,” the professor’s family said in a written statement. “He could not live with the thought that his name and reputation were smeared and associated with things which he believed he never had done.” Mr. Miller, who is 66 and has worked at Iowa since 1985, has two young sons.

The professor was charged on August 8 with four counts of accepting bribes based on allegations that he had asked four female students to expose their breasts in exchange for better grades. Shortly after that, Iowa’s president, Sally Mason, ordered all Iowa professors to undergo training on how to avoid sexual harassment. Until now, only supervisors have been required to undergo such training.

Mr. Miller called a reporter at The Cedar Rapids Gazette on Tuesday morning, saying he felt he had been treated unfairly by an Iowa administrator. He has been on paid leave.

The police called off their search of the park last night and reopened it to the public. It is unclear whether the search will resume today. Some buildings at the university and five local schools were on lockdown for a while this week after Mr. Miller’s wife reported him missing. —Robin Wilson