The body of the missing Princeton Jr. was recovered from a lake adjacent to the New Jersey campus, ending a nearly week-long search for students.
Lauren Blackburn, 23, was found on Lake Carnegie on Friday morning. According to Princeton’s Department of Safety. The cause of death was not immediately revealed.
“I am deeply saddened to share with you that the body of Lauren Blackburn ’26 was discovered on Carnegie Lake this morning. Our hearts are heavy and we share the deepest pathos of dol with Lauren’s family and friends.” I wrote it in a letter to the school.
Blackburn, a major in English, was seen before he disappeared before he was last seen near the university’s Firestone Library at about 6pm on April 19th.
School officials reported Blackburn missing via campus alert on Tuesday.
Officials called in the artificial reservoir area around midnight Tuesday, urging them to begin a search for water.
Lake Carnegie is located just south of the campus, near the university’s athletics facility, but about a mile from the library where Blackburn was last seen.
The lake was a gift from Andrew Carnegie of the steel industry and cost $450,000. That’s about $9.5 million today, the school said.
The reservoir is located on 263 acres with a uniform depth of 9 feet, 35 feet from the coastline.
The original author of Blackburn, a former Princetonian Daily Prinschnia newspaper, was the latest winner of the 2024 Sam Hutton Fund for the Arts.
The award will be given to one student at the Lewis Center’s Arts Center “to support undergraduate summer research, travel and independent research.”
Before attending Princeton, Blackburn graduated from Coridon Central High School in southern Indiana.
He made a local headline in 2019 as a high school senior.
The teacher praised the time as a kind student with excellent memories.
“He can read a book and learn everything in it,” says English teacher Kate Robinson I said to the wave at that time. “I’m sure he has a memory of the photograph.”
“He’s kind,” added Karen York, science teacher. “I’ve never heard him speak any bad words.”
Blackburn’s death is the sixth undergraduate student at the school since 2021, with all five previously ruled as suicide. The Daily Princetonian pointed out.
Junior Sociology Major Misrach Ewunetie was found dead in October 2022 near the school’s tennis court after being reported missing six days ago.
Autopsy confirmed that Ewunetie died of “bupropion, escitalopram and hydroxyzine toxicity.” The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office has announced.
