A missing Long Island teen who was initially believed to have traveled to New York City to meet a contact from the game Roblox has been found dead in Brooklyn, police say. Fox News reports that the body of 15-year-old Thomas Medlin of St. James, New York, was retrieved from the waters off of Red Hook on Saturday and formally IDed on Thursday, according to Suffolk County police. Authorities say that Medlin exited the Stony Brook School on Jan. 9 at about 3:30pm and took off for a nearby train station; they note that he was last spotted later that afternoon at Manhattan's Grand Central Terminal.
Investigators later used surveillance and digital records to trace his last movements to the pedestrian walkway of the Manhattan Bridge at 7:06pm that evening. His phone activity stopped three minutes later, and a splash in the water below was recorded on surveillance video at 7:10pm. Authorities say Medlin was never seen leaving the bridge. Police say there's no sign of "criminal activity," though the investigation is still active.
Medlin's family had said at the time that detectives believe he went into the city to meet someone he'd met on Roblox, with his mother noting that behavior would've been "completely out of character" for her son, per News 12 Long Island. "He has never left us," an emotional Eva Yan told the outlet, per People. Medlin's case has prompted fresh scrutiny of online gaming safety, though after reviewing his social media and gaming accounts, police said those platforms weren't linked to his disappearance, per Fox.
Still, Roblox said the company is "deeply troubled" by the case and is working with investigators, stressing that the platform includes filters to block personal information and offers tools for parents to restrict chat and other features. "Our beautiful boy is in heaven! We are both so proud to have him as our son," Medlin's parents say in a statement to Newsday, with Yan adding, "We love him more than anything he could imagine."
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