The physique of a lacking Princeton junior was recovered from a lake that borders the New Jersey campus, ending an almost week-long seek for the coed.
Lauren Blackburn, 23, was present in Lake Carnegie on Friday morning, in line with Princeton’s Division of Security. A reason for dying was not instantly revealed.
“I am deeply saddened to share with you that the body of Lauren Blackburn ’26 was found at Lake Carnegie this morning. Our hearts are heavy and we share our deepest condolences with Lauren’s family and friends,” Dean of Undergraduate College students Regan Crotty wrote in a letter to the varsity.
Blackburn, who was majoring in English, was final seen close to the school’s Firestone Library at round 6 p.m. on April 19 earlier than he vanished, the varsity mentioned.
Faculty officers reported Blackburn as lacking on Tuesday by way of a campus alert.
Officers pinged his cellphone within the space of the man-made reservoir round midnight Tuesday, prompting a water search to start.
Lake Carnegie sits simply south of campus — close to the college’s athletic advanced — however a couple of mile from the library the place Blackburn was final seen.
The lake was a present from metal industrialist Andrew Carnegie for a price of $450,000, which is roughly $9.5 million as we speak, the varsity mentioned.
The reservoir sits on 263 acres with a uniform depth of 9 ft at a 35-foot distance from the shoreline.
A former options author for the Each day Princetonian, the coed newspaper, Blackburn was the newest winner of the 2024 Sam Hutton Fund for the Arts.
The award is given to 1 pupil within the Lewis Middle for the Arts “to support undergraduate summer study, travel, and independent research.”
Earlier than attending Princeton, Blackburn graduated from Corydon Central Excessive Faculty in southern Indiana.
He made native headlines in 2019 as a highschool senior when he was awarded a Nationwide Advantage Scholarship and Gates Scholarship.
Academics praised the then-teenager as a sort pupil with a wonderful reminiscence.
“He can read a book and know everything in it,” English trainer Kate Robinson advised WAVE on the time. “I’m pretty sure he has a photographic memory.”
”He’s form,” science trainer Karen York added. “I have never, ever once heard him ever speak a bad word.”
Blackburn’s dying marks the sixth of an undergraduate on the faculty since 2021, with all 5 beforehand being dominated as suicides, the Each day Princetonian famous.
Junior sociology main Misrach Ewunetie was discovered useless close to the varsity’s tennis courts in October 2022 after being reported lacking six days earlier.
An post-mortem confirmed Ewunetie died from “bupropion, escitalopram and hydroxyzine toxicity,” the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Workplace introduced.
