Missing Stanford Student Found Safe in Malaysia

A Stanford music student reported by his family to be missing Friday has turned up safe in a Malaysian park, his mother said.

Jacob Neil Boehm, 22, who also coaches debate at , while traveling in Jerantut, Pahang District, Malaysia. This morning he phoned home to his parents on a specialized two-way radio from Taman Negara National Park, his mother said.

“He said he was safe, that ‘it was a long story’ and that he would call us when he gets out of the park in a few days,” said his mother, Nancy Luberoff, in an email. “We are beyond relieved and happy that he is safe.”

Nancy said that without the search that resulted from a coordinated social media campaign, Jacob would have gone 10 days without communication with the outside world.

Jacob had been updating an online map while traveling throughout the region from small town to small town, immersing himself in local culture and volunteering in areas ravaged by the tsunami.

He also posted regularly on his Google+ page, where his most recent post, on Aug. 10, depicted photographs from a Thai school where he volunteered.

“Given that Jacob found a way to contact us every two to three days during this entire three-month trip in Southeast Asia, it was very uncharacteristic of him to not contact us for six days,” she said.

“Clearly it was the power of social media that helped us find him—though, of course, he was never lost. We are the ones who were lost,” she said.

Through Facebook, Jacob’s parents found a Malaysian student at Stanford whose father works in the prime minister's office. His connection, coupled with the hard work of the U.S. Consulate, surfaced Jacob quickly, according to Nancy.

“We all wonder, at what point do you start worrying?” she said. “Do we wait five days, six days, seven days, eight days? No parent knows the answer.”
  
Nancy described the whole experience as “overwhelming” and was thankful to everyone who helped in the effort.

She also said she does not regret emailing 12 of Jacob's friends Friday to ask for help.

“We just never imagined that over 4,000 people would care enough to help,” she said. “Few of us ever get to experience this kind of outpouring of love and support in our lives.”