Updated 6:40 p.m. with details about Young-Bryant’s whereabouts Tuesday night.
Emergency responders recovered the body of Alan Young-Bryant M.A. ’07 Ph.D. ’11 from the Cascadilla gorge early Wednesday morning. Young-Bryant’s death appears to have been caused by an “accidental fall” into the gorge, police said.
A resident of Los Angeles at the time of his death, Young-Bryant, 32, was found in the gorge by Treman Triangle, near the intersection of Linn Street and University Avenue.
Earlier Wednesday, the University said emergency services responded to an incident “in Cascadilla Gorge underneath the Stewart Avenue Bridge.” The Cascadilla Gorge trail runs from Stewart Avenue to Linn Street.
Young-Bryant had been “back in Ithaca to celebrate the successful defense of his long-time partner’s Ph.D. thesis and to reconnect with their friends in the area,” according to Prof. Jonathan Culler, English, who was Young-Bryant’s thesis adviser.
He was last seen Tuesday night at the Chapter House.
“The couple had been celebrating the end of her exams at the bar before they lost track of each other,” a University press release said.
Young-Bryant’s partner then called the Cornell University Police and Ithaca Police Department to report that he had gone missing, the press release said.
At Cornell, Young-Bryant earned a M.A. and Ph.D. in English language and literature. He published a doctoral dissertation in 2011 about “perverse form and Victorian lyric,” according to the website of the Department of English.
Young-Bryant’s LinkedIn profile says he was an associate at Oaktree Capital Management, an investment management firm. According to the profile, Young-Bryant received his bachelor degree from Tufts University in 2002 before enrolling in Cornell’s graduate school in 2003.
An autopsy is scheduled for Thursday, a statement from the Ithaca Police Department said.
Original Author: Sun Staff