Missing Princeton student Lauren Blackburn found dead at lake near campus — week after vanishing

The assemblage of a missing Princeton inferior was recovered from a reservoir that borders nan New Jersey campus, ending a astir week-long hunt for nan student.

Lauren Blackburn, 23, was recovered successful Lake Carnegie connected Friday morning, according to Princeton’s Department of Safety. A origin of decease was not instantly revealed.

“I americium profoundly saddened to stock pinch you that nan assemblage of Lauren Blackburn ’26 was recovered astatine Lake Carnegie this morning. Our hearts are dense and we stock our deepest condolences pinch Lauren’s family and friends,” Dean of Undergraduate Students Regan Crotty wrote successful a missive to nan school.

Blackburn, who was majoring successful English, was past seen adjacent nan college’s Firestone Library astatine astir 6 p.m. connected April 19 earlier he vanished, nan schoolhouse said.

School officials reported Blackburn arsenic missing connected Tuesday done a field alert.

Officials pinged his telephone successful nan area of nan man-made reservoir astir midnight Tuesday, prompting a h2o hunt to begin.

Lake Carnegie sits conscionable southbound of field — adjacent nan university’s diversion analyzable — but astir a mile from nan room wherever Blackburn was past seen.

The reservoir was a gift from alloy industrialist Andrew Carnegie for a costs of $450,000, which is astir $9.5 cardinal today, nan schoolhouse said.

The reservoir sits connected 263 acres pinch a azygous extent of 9 feet astatine a 35-foot region from nan shoreline.

A erstwhile features writer for nan Daily Princetonian, nan student newspaper, Blackburn was nan astir caller victor of the 2024 Sam Hutton Fund for nan Arts.

The grant is fixed to 1 student successful nan Lewis Center for nan Arts “to support undergraduate summertime study, travel, and independent research.”

Before attending Princeton, Blackburn graduated from Corydon Central High School successful confederate Indiana.

He made section headlines successful 2019 arsenic a precocious schoolhouse elder erstwhile he was awarded a National Merit Scholarship and Gates Scholarship.

Teachers praised nan then-teenager arsenic a benignant student pinch an fantabulous memory.

“He tin publication a book and cognize everything successful it,” English coach Kate Robinson told WAVE astatine nan time. “I’m beautiful judge he has a photographic memory.”

”He’s kind,” subject coach Karen York added. “I person never, ever erstwhile heard him ever speak a bad word.”

Blackburn’s decease marks nan sixth of an undergraduate astatine nan schoolhouse since 2021, pinch each 5 antecedently being ruled arsenic suicides, the Daily Princetonian noted.

Junior sociology awesome Misrach Ewunetie was recovered dead adjacent nan school’s tennis courts successful October 2022 aft being reported missing six days earlier.

An autopsy confirmed Ewunetie died from “bupropion, escitalopram and hydroxyzine toxicity,” the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office announced.