By Anne Levin

Lauren Blackburn

A Princeton University student was reported missing on Tuesday, April 22, according to a TigerAlert sent to the University community around 11 a.m. by the school’s Department of Public Safety. Lauren Blackburn, an undergraduate member of the class of 2026, was last seen at about 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 19 near Firestone Library.

Blackburn, 23, is 6 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs 170 pounds. He has brown eyes and black hair. According to the Department of Public Safety, when last seen he was wearing blue jeans with torn knees, a yellow T-shirt with a black, zippered hooded sweatshirt, and blue, flat-bottom shoes.

According to a report by the ABC News affiliate WPVI, a search of Lake Carnegie began around 12 a.m. on Tuesday morning after a phone belonging to a missing student pinged in the area. It was not confirmed that the phone belonged to Blackburn.

On Tuesday afternoon, news helicopters from ABC and NBC news stations were circling the area. The Princeton Alumni Weekly reported that an emergency vehicle towing two inflatable motorboats was seen on Washington Road heading toward Lake Carnegie. A Trenton fire truck and other emergency vehicles are reported to have been in the lakefront near the Harrison Street Bridge. Sonar units and drones from Hamilton Township, as well as K-9 units, were also being utilized.

The Princeton Police Department directed a query to the University’s Department of Public Safety, but said they were assisting in the effort.

Blackburn was a National Merit Scholar and a Gates Scholar at Corydon Central High School, in Corydon, Indiana. He graduated in 2019. In a local television news segment aired that spring, he said that he toured several universities before settling on Princeton when he was accepted early.

According to The Daily Princetonian, for which Blackburn is a former features writer, an email sent to all undergraduates on Tuesday afternoon from Vice President for Student Life W. Rochelle Calhoun indicated that support services were available at Counseling and Psychological Services, the Office of Religious Life, and the residential colleges and graduate school.

“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.

As of late Tuesday afternoon, the University was asking anyone with information about Blackburn’s whereabouts to call the Public Safety Department at (609) 258-1000.