Authorities are searching for a Princeton University student, who was last seen at one of the New Jersey school’s libraries over the weekend.
Lauren Blackburn, 23, was last seen on Saturday, April 19, at approximately 6 p.m. local time, according to a Tiger Alert emailed to students on Tuesday, April 22. The last sighting was near Firestone Library wearing “blue jeans with torn knees, a yellow t-shirt with a black, zippered hooded sweatshirt, and blue, flat bottom shoes,” per the alert.
The junior is 6 feet, 2 inches tall, and weighs 170 pounds. Princeton University Vice President for Student Life W. Rochelle Calhoun sent an email to all students offering resources and support at Counseling and Psychological Services and the Office of Religious Life, as well as the residential colleges and graduate school, according to The Daily Princetonian.
“I will share an update when we know more, but in the meantime please hold Lauren in your thoughts as we attempt to locate him,” Calhoun wrote.
The Department of Public Safety began its search for Blackburn on Monday, April 21 at Lake Carnegie, a man-made reservoir located a mile away from the campus library, where Blackburn was last seen. A missing person’s phone was pinged to the area, but DPS has yet to recover it or determine if it belonged to Blackburn.
Sonar units, drones from nearby Hamilton Township, N.J., and K-9 units are currently being utilized in the water search for Blackburn, per 6ABC.
The lake was constructed for Princeton’s prestigious rowing team in 1906. The lake is nine feet deep at a 35-foot distance from the shoreline, according to the university.
Blackburn, who was once a features writer for Princeton’s student newspaper, received the National Merit Scholarship in 2019, per WAVE. He also earned the Gates Scholarship as a high school student at Corydon Central High School in Corydon, Ind.
“I’m very grateful and feel very blessed,” Blackburn told the outlet at the time. “Princeton will allow me to study anything and get a world class education in anything.”
”He can read a book and know everything in it,” Corydon English teacher Kate Robinson told the station. “I’m pretty sure he has a photographic memory.”
PEOPLE has reached out to Princeton University Police and The Daily Princetonian for comment.
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