Authorities desperately search near lake for missing Princeton junior

A desperate search is underway for a Princeton University junior who disappeared from campus nearly three days ago without a trace.

Indiana native Lauren Blackburn, 23, vanished at 6 p.m. Saturday near the college’s Firestone Library, the school’s Department of Public Safety said in an alert Tuesday.

Authorities began scouring nearby Lake Carnegie, a man-made body of water, at about midnight after Blackburn’s phone had pinged in that vicinity, according to reports.

Teams used drones, sonar-equipped boats and search dogs overnight, News 12 reported.

The New Jersey lake is near the Princeton campus, though it’s about a mile from the library.

The college kid, a former features writer for the elite university’s student newspaper, was wearing blue jeans with torn knees, a yellow shirt with a black zippered hooded sweatshirt and blue, flat-bottom shoes, the department said.

“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,” Vice President for Student Life W. Rochelle Calhoun wrote in another email to the student body, according to the Daily Princetonian.

Before moving to New Jersey to attend college, Blackburn graduated from Corydon Central High School in southern Indiana near the Kentucky border.

He made headlines in 2019 when he was awarded a National Merit Scholarship and Gates Scholarship in his senior year of high school, with teachers showering praise on the star pupil, according to a past WAVE report.

”He can read a book and know everything in it,” English teacher Kate Robinson told the station. “I’m pretty sure he has a photographic memory.”

”He’s kind,” science teacher Karen York added. “I have never, ever once heard him ever speak a bad word.”

Blackburn told the station at the time he was nervous about attending the Ivy League institution, but looking forward to the opportunity.

“I’m very grateful and feel very blessed,” he reportedly said. “Princeton will allow me to study anything and get a world class education in anything.”

Blackburn is 6-feet-2 and about 170 pounds with brown eyes and black hair.

The school’s public safety department said anyone with information should call 609-258-1000.