Police search for Princeton student missing since last week
Misrach Ewunetie, an undergraduate student at Princeton University, remained missing on Thursday morning as local authorities continued their ongoing search nearly one week after her disappearance.
Ewunetie was last seen at around 3 a.m. on Friday near Scully Hall, a residential building located in the southeastern part of the
Ivy League institution’s suburban New Jersey campus. She is 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighs 130 pounds, and has black hair and brown eyes, the university said in a statement announcing the search earlier this week.
The Department of Public Safety at Princeton issued a missing student alert on Monday, according to the university. The previous night, Misrach’s family had requested that officers conduct what the school calls a “wellbeing check” — when a student’s relatives ask campus safety officers to make contact with them — because they had not heard from her in several days, said W. Rochelle Calhoun, the vice president for campus life at the university, in a letter to Princeton students on Wednesday.
DPS has coordinated with the prosecutor’s office as well as state and local law enforcement agencies “to follow all leads in the search for Misrach” since then, according to Calhoun, who said in the letter that she is “confident that all is being done to find Misrach.”
“Since the issuance of the Tiger Alert, our campus community has demonstrated an outpouring of support, concern, prayers and hopes for Misrach’s well-being and safe return,” Calhoun wrote. “Thank you to everyone for continuing to hold Misrach and her family in your thoughts as our search continues.”
Universe Ewunetie, Misrach Ewunetie’s brother, told the US Sun on Wednesday that his sister had been sharing her location with a family member through her smartphone, which pinged for the last time at around 3:30 a.m. on Sunday before it was turned off. He said the location was somewhere in Penns Neck, New Jersey, which is about a mile away from Princeton’s campus.
Police have reportedly searched the housing complex at that location three times, including one instance using police dogs, since Sunday, said Universe Ewunetie. He told “Good Morning America” that time is “of the essence” while speaking about the search on Thursday morning.
The search for Ewunetie intensified Wednesday, as police expanded the probe to include Lake Carnegie, a reservoir near the university campus, CBS New York reported. DPS said earlier this week that there was “an increased law enforcement presence on and around campus,” which included “the use of a helicopter, drones and watercraft.” The university shared another brief update on Thursday morning.
“As efforts continue to locate missing undergraduate student Misrach Ewunetie ’24, there will again be an increased law enforcement presence on and around campus today,” the school said, in a bulletin posted to Princeton’s official website and Twitter page before 9 a.m. eastern time.
The university has asked anyone with information about Ewunetie’s whereabouts to report what they know to DPS by calling 609-258-1000. Those who wish to report an anonymous tip can do so online at the DPS website.