Missing Brown Student and Incorrectly Accused Bomber Found Dead

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Thursday, April 25, 2013

GoLocalWorcester News Team

Sunil Tripathi, the missing Brown University student who was incorrectly identified as suspect #2 in the Boston Marathon bombing, was found dead off of India Point Park in Providence.

The Department of Health confirmed this morning that the body pulled from India Point Park on Tuesday was Tripathi, based on a forensic dental examination.

Tripathi had been missing since March 16th. A major effort by his family and friends had been launched to find him.

In the midst of the hunt for the Boston Marathon Bombers, rumors exploded on Twitter identifying Tripathi as suspect #2.

Loved at Brown

In an April 1 article on GoLocal, family, friends and faculty at Brown all gave praise and offered memories about Tripathi.

As the Providence Police, the FBI, and concerned friends and citizens continue to work on finding Sunil, GoLocal asked family and friends who know Sunil to share reminiscences, thoughts, and wishes for their missing classmate and friend.

"Sunil is my son and as you can imagine this is an unbelievable unfortunate situation. He is a kind, very thoughtful, sensitive, gentle, and caring person. He is a deep thinker and gets along with everyone. He is shy and quiet and feels that one does not need to say a lot. I hope we find him soon." -Akhil Tripathi

Reddit Fuels Allegations

Late Wednesday night and Thursday morning, Tripathi became the number one trend on Twitter, fueled by Reddit's crowd sourcing coverage of the effort to identify the bombers.

Reddit general manager Erik Martin apologized this week to Sunil Tripathi's family for his site's misidentification of the missing Brown University student.

"We want to take this opportunity to apologize publicly for the pain they [the Tripathi family] have had to endure," Martin posted on Reddit. "We hope that this painful event will be channeled into something positive and the increased awareness will lead to Sunil's quick and safe return home. We encourage everyone to join and show your support to the Tripathi family and their search."