Missing I.C. Student Found, Pronounced Dead

William Jacobson, 19, a freshman at Ithaca College, was pronounced dead this morning after divers from the New York State Police recovered his body from a pond on Farm Road on the I.C. campus at approximately 9:30 a.m. The Ithaca Police Department and other authorities are currently investigating the case, I.C. President Peggy Williams wrote in an email today.
Late Monday night, the IPD and the Ithaca College Office of Public Safety began searching for Jacobson, who had been missing since approximately 3:30 a.m. Sunday morning. Jacobson was last seen leaving a party held at a residence on Grandview Avenue and was believed to be returning to his room.
According to Jacobson’s friend Alex Rosenblatt, a sophomore at I.C., who was with Jacobson earlier that evening, Jacobson was shown a “50 foot shortcut” through the woods to get back to I.C. Friends soon noticed that his phone was dead and that Jacobson was not text messaging them as he frequently did. By Monday afternoon, Rosenblatt noted that Jacobson’s friends became alarmed since “we hadn’t seen him in such a long time.”
Williams described Jacobson, who was from St. Paul, Minnesota, as an “incredibly talented student with many close friends and so much potential.” She stated that Jacobson’s death is “a loss not just for the campus community but for all who knew him.”
A vigil will be held tonight evening at 8:00 p.m. at I.C.’s Muller Chapel.