Police: Body found likely Duke student
Franklin community mourns
Police ended a near weeklong search yesterday after finding the body of a man they believe is Michael Doherty, the 20-year-old missing Duke University student whose disappearance had police, firefighters and neighbors scouring Franklin since last weekend.
Two civilians helping with the search discovered the body about 2:30 p.m. in dense underbrush about 450 feet off Interstate 495, Franklin police said.
The state’s medical examiner had yet to formally identify him yesterday, but police said they believe it is Doherty, who was last seen leaving a party with friends about 1:30 a.m. last Sunday. Franklin police Chief Thomas J. Lynch told reporters last night that there was no evidence of foul play in Doherty’s death.
The 2015 grad of Xaverian Brothers High School had returned home for the summer the week before and was due to start his junior year at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. Police said he was walking on foot with a dead cellphone from the house party, which was about a mile from his parents’ home on Catherine Avenue.
His disappearance, they said, occurred during an unusually powerful spring nor’easter.
Duke officials said they had heard “sad news about the police report” and that their thoughts are with the Doherty family “during this difficult time.” “The community as a whole has Michael and his family in the forefront of their hearts and minds,” said Ann Alsfeld, the communications director for Xaverian Brothers, where Doherty’s brother had also graduated. The school was already planning to hold a prayer for Doherty tomorrow.
The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office and state police are leading the investigation.
Police said earlier in the week they had found sneakers and a shirt that belonged to Doherty in a marshy area of Mine Brook in Franklin, and at one point, the search had expanded into neighboring Bellingham. Divers from state and Quincy police had also searched the brook, and dozens of people were involved in the search at different times.
In a statement, Franklin police said: “The thoughts and prayers of all the members of the Franklin Police Department and all of the other agencies that participated in searching for Michael go out to the Doherty family in this time of great tragedy.”