Body of College Senior Missing Since Thanksgiving Pulled From River, Family Says

PHILADELPHIA (TheBlaze/AP) — The body of a West Chester University senior who disappeared on Thanksgiving after a night out with friends was recovered Saturday from the Schuylkill River, less than half a mile downstream from where he was last seen.

Shane Montgomery (Image source: WCAU-TV)

Shane Montgomery's parents said the body pulled from the water Saturday was his. Authorities had not yet confirmed the identity pending a review by the Philadelphia medical examiner's office.

Montgomery's family watched a search crew remove the 21-year-old's body from the water, WCAU-TV reported.

His body was found at the bottom of the Schuylkill, about 10-feet away from the bank of the river, a member of the dive team told WCAU.

Karen Montgomery, Shane's mother, said the family has done what it promised: found Shane and brought him home.

Montgomery had been out with friends until the early-morning hours of Thanksgiving and never made it home. His mother has said he was escorted out of Kildare's Irish Pub in the city's lively Manayunk neighborhood around 2 a.m.

FBI Supervisory Special Agent J.J. Klaver said Saturday a body was recovered behind the Manayunk Brew Pub, less than a 10-minute walk from Kildare's.

In addition to city police and the FBI, hundreds of volunteers helped search for Montgomery and posted fliers about his disappearance. A candlelight vigil drew a large crowd to the university's student union building in early December, and contributions from the family, police and Kildare's pushed the reward fund to $65,000.

Divers found Montgomery's keys along the river on Dec. 21.

"The frustrating part is that there are no leads — no one knows what happened to him," Karen Montgomery told the AP last month. "It's a nightmare I can't wake up from."

This story has been updated.