Body Found Could Be Missing Student

The body of a young man was found in Lake Michigan today and Chicago police are trying to determine whether it is a 20-year-old Northwestern University freshman who has been missing for more than a week.

Northwestern University freshman Trevor Boehm has not been seen on campus since last Wednesday, according to authorities.

(Northwestern University handout)

The medical examiner is conducting an investigation to determine the identify of the body found at around 7:30 a.m. today, Chicago Police Department spokeswoman Sgt. Antoinette Ursitti said. The results of the autopsy are expected Monday.

Law enforcement and the Coast Guard had been scouring the lake since Thursday, when a jacket and other things belonging to the young man, Trevor Boehm, of Monument, Colo., were found by the shore of the lake near the Northwestern campus.

Boehm was reported missing on Nov. 9, after his parents came to visit him at the college only to find he had vanished without a trace days earlier.

He hadn't been in his residence hall, attended classes or used his student ID card in the dining halls since Nov. 5, according to a press release from the university.

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Boehm's green Schwinn bicycle was also missing, according to authorities.

Despite filing a missing person report with a national police database and the Evanston Police Department, officials had not turned up any leads until the discovery today.

A woman who answered the phone at the Boehm family's home in Monument, Colo., last week declined to comment about the student's disappearance.

But Boehm's grandmother, Laverna Boehm, told ABCNews.com in a telephone interview last week that "everyone is praying" for the safe return of her grandson.

She said that Boehm had been busy with school and was a talented actor. According to the university, Boehm was enrolled in the School of Communication.

Sasha Puchalla, a Northwestern junior who has known Boehm since they attended same private high school in Colorado, told the campus newspaper that her friend "really enjoyed being around people and has a lot of fun with life in general."

"He is just such a vibrant person," Puchalla told the Daily Northwestern. "He is very caring and compassionate."