Princeton student Lauren Blackburn reported missing

Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News on Apr 22, 2025

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A Princeton undergraduate student was reported missing Tuesday as first responders searched an on-campus lake.

Lauren Blackburn, 23, was last seen Saturday around 6 p.m. on the school’s central New Jersey campus, the Daily Princetonian reported. The Princeton community received an alert around 11 a.m. Tuesday that Blackburn had been reported missing.

Search and rescue crews began an operation at Lake Carnegie around midnight Tuesday, briefly paused overnight and then resumed in the morning, News 12 New Jersey reported. Blackburn’s cellphone was traced to the area, officials said.

The search included sonar-equipped boats, drones and K9 units, according to Philadelphia ABC affiliate WPVI. Crews used a nearby boat ramp for staging.

Blackburn was described as 6-foot-2, 170 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. When he disappeared, he was wearing a black hoodie, yellow T-shirt and blue jeans. He was last spotted near the school’s Firestone Library, which is about a mile walk from the lake.

Blackburn was scheduled to graduate in 2026, the Princetonian reported. He formerly worked for the student paper, where he wrote two feature articles during the 2023-24 school year.

Lake Carnegie is a man-made reservoir built in 1906 and used for practice by the school’s rowing teams. In 2018, a 23-year-old man from Trenton, New Jersey, who was not a Princeton student drowned in the lake. Talven Page leapt from a boat and swam a few moments before disappearing, police said.

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