NY NY - Thomas Medlin, 15, Stony Brook, 9 Jan 2026

[ChatteringBirds]

No this wasn’t in my mind at all

Nor mine. This is so so tragic if true.
I'm going to go ahead and say it, they need to follow San Francisco's example with the Golden Gate bridge and finally install deterrents on their bridges. A camera system isn't good enough.

 

[investikater]

Nooooo

But why go all that way to end your life? Frankly there are plenty of ways.

Just my opinion

 

[TMich6811]

Chilling new details revealed in case of missing Long Island teen Thomas Medlin: ‘A splash in the water’

Missing 15-year-old Thomas Medlin was last seen on the Manhattan Bridge before a surveillance camera captured a troubling image.

nypost.com

According to the Suffolk County Police Department, cameras then captured the teen on the pedestrian walkway on the Manhattan Bridge at 7:06 p.m. — with his last mobile phone activity recorded at 7:09 p.m.

“A nearby surveillance camera captured a splash in the water” just a minute later, at 7:10 p.m.,” police said.

Mobile active activity or just that it was on I wonder

 

[hot cawfeee]

Update from the New York Post - and not good news. He was seen on surveillance camera, hours after he left his school, pacing on the Manhattan bridge, there was a recorded splash in the water. He wasn't seen exiting the bridge. LE stopped short of saying he somehow plunged into the water but it was noted that the footage does not show the teen leaving the bridge. Chilling new details revealed in case of missing Long Island teen Thomas Medlin: ‘A splash in the water’

Yes...I saw this....awful...but there's a facebook page LONG ISLAND MISSING PEOPLE (all caps) with very different info...have a look at it bc I'm hoping its right !

 

[GraceG]

Yes...I saw this....awful...but there's a facebook page LONG ISLAND MISSING PEOPLE (all caps) with very different info...have a look at it bc I'm hoping its right !

Thanks for the heads up. That webpage had a lot of personal opinions but unless I missed something I saw nothing in the way of additional facts from posters there other than what has been printed in msm to date, including this article someone shared that I'd not seen yet. St. James Teen Likely Plummeted From Manhattan Bridge Weeks Ago, Police Hint In Update

 

[Overtlycovert]

Has it been confirmed that he was alone on the bridge?

 

[bella263]

Has it been confirmed that he was alone on the bridge?

I don't believe MSM/PD have released many details but it sounds like they have a good amount of surveillance footage

"Police, who did not mention anything in their update about Medlin being found, went on to say that there is "no indication of criminal activity."" - New Evidence Shows Boy Who Disappeared After Traveling to N.Y.C. 2 Weeks Ago Was Last Seen on Bridge Over Water

 

[borndem]

Oh no </3

​

Welcome to Websleuths, ​

minnesotanimatronic !!​

 

[borndem]

I'm ready for Spring...

 

[borndem]

Nor mine. This is so so tragic if true.
I'm going to go ahead and say it, they need to follow San Francisco's example with the Golden Gate bridge and finally install deterrents on their bridges. A camera system isn't good enough.

You said it, 'Birds.

Still hoping for good news...

 

[anonypotomous]

After hearing this podcast with his mom, the first thing I thought was suicide. That kid has so much pressure on him.. the way his mom talked about him.. ugh. How could he live up to that. It’s so sad. Poor kid. I’m also sure there’s a lot that wasn’t said.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/have-a-seat-with-chris-hansen/id1543252280?i=1000747050319

 

[mlhenn]

The Sun

The Best for News, Sport, Showbiz, Celebrities

www.the-sun.com

Just sharing link…

The family are worried the splash revelation may force people to conclude Thomas drowned and want cops to retract the statement which, he claims, was made without the family’s go-ahead.

 

[Eric Trott]

The Sun

The Best for News, Sport, Showbiz, Celebrities

www.the-sun.com

Just sharing link…

The family are worried the splash revelation may force people to conclude Thomas drowned and want cops to retract the statement which, he claims, was made without the family’s go-ahead.

A splash is just a splash. Depending on how far away the camera was, we could be talking about a phone, or large device.

Until the police say they found a body - on average it takes around 21 days for a body to surface - I'm not reaching any definite conclusion about what the splash means.

 

[JamieLogical]

I like how everyone was willing to immediately jump to conclusions about a predator on Roblox, but want to see a body before they are willing to buy suicide as an explanation.

Is your thinking that he is last seen on video going onto the bridge, there was a nondescript splash, and no video of him existing the bridge, so the Roblox predator must have picked him up on the bridge?

 

[TMich6811]

A splash is just a splash. Depending on how far away the camera was, we could be talking about a phone, or large device.

Until the police say they found a body - on average it takes around 21 days for a body to surface - I'm not reaching any definite conclusion about what the splash means.

It’s not the splash for me.

It’s the splash and him not being seen leaving

 

[TMich6811]

I like how everyone was willing to immediately jump to conclusions about a predator on Roblox, but want to see a body before they are willing to buy suicide as an explanation.

IMO suicide is likely given the new details. I’m not doubting it.

I’m not sure where you get that people jump to conclusions about a predator on Roblox. I don’t feel at all that it was jumping to conclusions. If the mother reported and thought he was going to meet someone on Roblox then a predator makes more sense that suicide, especially to the family.

 

[moonglow123]

Yeah. Ice is really bad on the river right now, to the point where they’re having ships go in to try to break it up. It’s totally possible he won’t be found for awhile.

While one of those ships spotting him is possible, also very possible his body could be hidden under the ice or washed out or something along those lines. Really sad. The cold spell isn’t predicted to break for weeks so who knows when that ice will melt.

 

[CityKid]

I don't know if he was alone.

He was evidently spotted on the edge of the general 'Dumbo' area of Brooklyn. Though I am sure that NYC locals can give far more details, and that NYC might vary by the block in regards to safety, Dumbo has been gentrified and is now a trendy area.

Bad news, of course, is that sex predators do not need to operate from rough areas.

I'm an NYC native and still live her. I heard about this case earlyish on, maybe the 11th or 12th, when someone saying Thomas was his classmate out on Long Island and asking everyone to keep an eye out for him. It didn't get a lot of coverage on the news. I'm not caught up on this case, but as far as safety, none of the areas reported are dangerous per se, but for a 15-year-old who may not have ever been to NYC, they're not the safest to wander alone in the cold. I'd also be concerned if he made it to Dumbo, because the easiest ways to get there from lower Manhattan are the subway or walking over the bridge. Both the Manhattan Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge have pedestrian walkways and are popular ways to get to Brooklyn, but the neighborhoods near each in both Manhattan and Brooklyn aren't set up like the easy-to-navigate grid of numbered streets. I'm nervous for him.

 

[CityKid]

This article posted today says he was last seen at Grand Central. He was coming from Long Island, so maybe he was taking the F into the city and then was last seen at Grand Central?

Missing teen last seen at Grand Central after leaving school on Long Island

Suffolk County police say Thomas Medlin, 15, from Saint James, left Stony Brook School at about 3:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 9.

www.fox5ny.com

"Yan believes Medlin was able to bypass parental features she had put in place by secretly creating new Roblox accounts she did not know about with a separate email address, she told Fox."

I say this gently, but MOO I feel like the family might be in denial about Roblox's involvement (or lack thereof). There are so many ways determined kids can bypass parental controls, whether it's by regular email accounts, Discord, burner phones etc. A private school teen could also be overwhelmed by academic pressure from both the school and the family. I hope police are keeping an open mind about the circumstances of Thomas' disappearance and I hope he's found soon. I'm on the west side of Manhattan and we've got ice chunks floating in the Hudson; this is no weather for a kid to be outside the way he was dressed.

 

[CityKid]

Mobile active activity or just that it was on I wonder

Or from any other electronic devices?