Body of Missing Suffolk County Teen Thomas Medlin Found in Brooklyn
Surveillance cameras captured Thomas Medlin, 15, on the Manhattan Bridge at 7:06 p.m. before a splash; his body was found in Red Hook nearly two months later.
Suffolk County Police confirmed Thursday that the body recovered off Red Hook in Brooklyn on March 7 belongs to Thomas Medlin, the 15-year-old St. James boy who vanished on January 9 after surveillance cameras tracked him to the pedestrian walkway of the Manhattan Bridge, where the footage captured a splash in the water shortly afterward. He was never seen leaving the bridge.
Thomas, a student at the Stony Brook School, left campus at about 3:30 p.m. on that Friday and ran to the Stony Brook Long Island Rail Road station, where he caught a train into Manhattan. Investigators later placed him at Grand Central Terminal that afternoon. By about 7:06 p.m., surveillance cameras had captured him on the Manhattan Bridge. The last activity recorded on his cellphone came minutes after that sighting.
His mother, Eva Yan, told News 12 in the weeks following his disappearance that she believed Thomas had been heading into the city to meet someone he had befriended through the online game Roblox. A January 26 police update cast doubt on that theory, and investigators ultimately ruled it out entirely.
"Under the issuance of subpoenas and search warrants, an examination so far of multiple social media/online gaming profiles and forensic examination of electronic devices associated with Medlin was conducted," Suffolk County Police said in their statement. "This examination has determined these platforms are not connected to his disappearance."
The investigation included extensive video canvassing, subpoenas, search warrants, and forensic examination of electronic devices and online accounts. Detectives concluded there was no indication of criminal activity related to Thomas' disappearance.
In the weeks between his January disappearance and the March 7 recovery of his body, family members, friends, and volunteers distributed flyers across Long Island and pressed appeals across social media, hoping for his safe return. His remains were recovered from the waters off Red Hook but were not formally identified until Thursday, March 12.
No cause of death has been released publicly, and no suspects or criminal charges have been identified in the case.
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