A body of a missing Brown University student that was falsely linked to the Boston bombings last week, may have been found. ABC News reports that the Rhode Island medical examiner's office is trying to determine whether the body pulled from a river belongs to Sunil Tripathi.
ABC News reported that an autopsy is being made on the body. Tripathi is a 22-year-old philosophy major at Brown and was last seen on March 16. The FBI released a photo of one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects wearing a white baseball caps and someone reported the resemblance between the man and Tripathi, which sparked speculation about the missing student.
Tripathi's family wrote on Facebook that they "have known unequivocally all along that neither individual suspected as responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings was Sunil."
According to Boston.com Providence police Lieutenant Joseph Donnelly said that the body was found floating in a river Tuesday by the coach of Brown's rowing team. He also said that it was "very possible" that the man's body is Tripathi's.
Tripathi's sister, Sangeeta said to the Associated Press that her brother was living in an apartment in Providence with classmates.
Tripathi's family was rocked by the rumors that Triphathi had to do with the bombings on site like Twitter and Reddit.
"Someone will tweet, then retweet, and completely unsubstantiated things can proliferate so rapidly and destructively,'' Sangeeta Tripathi told Reuters. "Those night hours were horrible."
Reddit apologized for the rumor on Friday and Reddit users have launched a campaign to help find Tripathi. The last day Tripathi was seen, which was on a Friday he had tea with a friend, talked to is grandmother on the phone and had a text message conversation with his aunt in Boston, which Sangeeta said was normal.
"All of those people felt nothing remarkably different was happening," his sister said according to Fox News. On Saturday, she texted her brother and never heard back. She said that he had left his wallet, credit cards and cell phone in his apartment and a note that was not addressed to anyone. Sangheeta said about the note according to Fox News, "It was a very short note that was very vague and not conclusive."
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