Collegiate Times

A student who went missing from the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets Monday was found safe and uninjured in Grayson County, Va., a two-hour drive from Blacksburg yesterday.
 
The Virginia Tech Police Department declared Christopher Andrew Bell, freshman general engineering major, missing Tuesday after failing to attend muster ? the morning attendance check for cadets ? two days in a row.

Detective Curtis Cook, an investigator for the Tech police, said his department had received tips all morning yesterday regarding the whereabouts of the missing cadet, many of which involved sightings in Grayson County. After university police contacted the sheriff?s office in that locality, a Grayson County officer picked up Bell walking alongside the road shortly after noon yesterday.

?As far as the police (are) concerned, everything is OK,? Cook said in regards to the investigation.

Because Bell lived in a residence hall, the investigation was initially in the hands of Tech police. A representative from the Grayson County Sheriff?s Office said yesterday that no one was available to comment on the investigation, and Bell did not want to talk to reporters.

Missing person cases are not common with the university police, Cook said. Though Bell was put in contact with his family, police officials did not know why he had vanished shortly after being last seen at 1 a.m. Monday, or how he had reached Grayson County.

The investigation gained widespread attention in the New River Valley and the Roanoke Valley after television and print media in the area picked up the case. Law enforcement agencies circulated descriptions and a picture of Bell throughout the area, and Tech officials sent a public notice to all members of the university community.