Search to resume for missing college student

PHOTOGRAPHER: Lee Coleman

A state police helicopter, search dogs, and about 50 police, firefighters and volunteers were unable to locate a 19-year-old college student Monday who was reported missing Sunday afternoon.

The search team concentrated on an area near Care Lane, a short road just south of railroad tracks off Route 9N near the Saratoga Springs-Greenfield border.

Alexander Grant, 19, from Westchester County, is a Boston College student who drove up to Saratoga Springs for a weekend visit with friends at Skidmore College, said Lt. Gregory Veitch of the city Police Department.

Grant had attended a party on Church Street in Saratoga Springs on Saturday night. He was last seen at the party about 11:30 p.m. At about 1:15 a.m. Sunday, Grant is seen on surveillance video footage breaking into a medical office building at 3 Care Lane, police said. He allegedly broke a window to gain entry and may have cut himself on the window, Veitch said.

The 6-foot, 2-inch, 190-pound Grant was dressed only in boxer shorts, a long-sleeved T-shirt and was wearing only one sock. He was bleeding and left a trail of blood in the office, Veitch said.

“There is some indication he had been drinking, but we are not positive about this,” Veitch said Monday evening.

In the video, Grant was last observed leaving the office building at 2:15 a.m. Sunday and that was the last that was seen of him. His friends reported him missing late Sunday afternoon after they couldn’t locate him.

In an expanded police search of the area Sunday, the man’s pants were found near the railroad tracks along with identification. One sock was found nearby.

“We haven’t ruled out anything,” Veitch said. The search for the man will continue today with police dogs, a helicopter, state forest rangers and police and firefighters. The Maple Avenue Fire Company is helping in the search as are members of a local search and rescue team.

“It’s a mystery where he went,” Veitch said.

Grant’s parents, from the town of Briarcliff in Westchester County, were notified and came to Saratoga Springs on Monday.

Police have also located the car that Grant drove to Saratoga Springs.

“We know where it is and we know he’s not in it,” Veitch said about the car. He would not say where the car was found or where it was Monday.

Monday’s search was halted at dusk. Much of the searching was done in the area north of Sunnyside Gardens, a commercial garden and greenhouse business northwest of the medical offices on Care Lane.

The search was conducted, with the help of forest rangers, in the wooded areas along the railroad tracks between Church Street and Denton Road in Greenfield.

Searchers on Sunday did locate some indications of footprints in this area before the weather changed and snow and ice covered the tracks.

Ground search teams used hand-held thermal imaging devices early Sunday evening with no sign of the missing man. Veitch said both the city Police Department and Fire Department have thermal imaging equipment.

Grant has brown hair and blue eyes. Police are asking anyone who may have seen or heard from Alexander Grant since 2:15 a.m. Sunday to contact the city Police Department at 518-584-1800.