The body of Maximillian Carbone, a 19-year-old Wentworth Institute of Technology student, was found Sunday morning at the base of a rocky slope in Roxbury, police confirmed.
Carbone, who grew up in Nahant, was reported missing after leaving a Mission Hill party early Saturday morning. Family and friends had searched for the Wentworth sophomore, and many later remembered him as a kind friend and athlete.
“Our hearts are broken,” Carbone’s parents said in a statement provided by Wentworth Sunday afternoon. “Max was a sweet, happy, and loving son, brother, and friend. He was a hard-working student who cared about helping people. He will be missed dearly.”
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Police said Carbone’s death did not occur under suspicious circumstances. He was declared dead on scene after police responded to a report at Diablo Glass School, 123 Terrace St., at about 8:08 a.m.
The university community has been “devastated by the loss,” said Eric Overstrom, Wentworth’s senior vice president, during a press conference Sunday afternoon. “This type of event is perhaps the most difficult situation that any university community faces.”
Overstrom and Bill Powers, Wentworth’s director of public safety, described how family, friends, and community members had come together to search for Carbone Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, when volunteers set off at 7 a.m.
“It is a great encouragement as a university, as a group to know, that the people are here,” Powers said, referring to the search for Carbone, who had planned to study biomedical engineering.
Powers confirmed that alcohol was involved but said he wasn’t sure to what extent. Police said the cause of Carbone’s death is under investigation.
On Sunday morning, Boston police cars had cordoned off Terrace Street with yellow caution tape. When the caution tape was removed around 10 a.m., a group of six people walked past police vehicles with tears in their eyes.
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A black vehicle from the office of the state medical examiner pulled up next to the school at about 10:22 a.m. Minutes later, officials could be seen leaving the red industrial building carrying a body bag on a stretcher.
Christopher Watts, one of the educational managers at Diablo Glass School, said three of Carbone’s classmates came to the school on Saturday looking for the missing student. Watts said the young men told the school’s office manager that they had tracked his phone to the school’s location and were allowed in to search the school.
Watts said that, before he arrived, police had to traverse difficult terrain to get to Carbone’s body. There is “so much rubble and brush” there, he said.
The back of the school is enclosed by harsh, hilly terrain on its sides, with a fence running along the top of the slope. The area surrounding the school is littered with plastic and other debris.
After police left the scene, several people walked by the school’s backyard to pay their respects.
A man left a bouquet of pink and yellow flowers near the back of the school. A group of four men, one of whom was wearing a Wentworth sweatshirt, stood in the same spot as they wondered aloud how Carbone could have ended up there, gesturing to the rocky slope.
Powers, the Wentworth official, said Carbone’s death recalled warnings the college has made to students about the importance of sticking together.
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“We particularly point to places like Mission Hill, where people will go up with five or six roommates or will go up and then people get distracted,” Powers said during the press conference. “They get involved with other things and then nobody’s quite sure where everybody else is.”
In a statement posted online, Wentworth invited the community to gather in remembrance of Carbone at noon Monday in the lobby of The Center for Engineering, Innovation and Sciences.
Carbone was a 2017 graduate of Swampscott High School, according to a tweet from the school district.
“Our Swampscott Community is saddened by the news of the death of 2017 SHS graduate Max Carbone. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family,” the district said in the tweet.
Our Swampscott Community is saddened by the news of the death of 2017 SHS graduate Max Carbone. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family. Grief and counseling services will be available to all students and staff tomorrow at both the Middle School and High School.
— Swampscott Schools (@sps01907) April 7, 2019
Kevin Coffey, 18, said he grew up with Carbone in Nahant, and they overlapped on Swampscott’s varsity soccer team for two years.
“Max was a great athlete and teammate. He always made me and everyone else laugh,” he said in a Facebook message Sunday afternoon.
Coffey said Carbone, whom he described as a close family friend, was “a great person. He was kind, funny, and impacted so many people’s day/lives. He was loved by so many people and is hopefully in a better place.”
Sophia Eppolito can be reached at sophia.eppolito@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @SophiaEppolito. Lucas Phillips can be reached at lucas.phillips@globe.com.