An independent search team discovered the body of Murry “Alexis” Foust on Sunday, May 24, 2026, at the grounds of an abandoned steel plant in Wilder, Kentucky, ending a nearly monthlong search for the 22-year-old Northern Kentucky University student.
EquuSearch Midwest, a volunteer organization that assists in missing-person cases throughout the region, coordinated the search party that located Foust’s remains at one Steel Plant Road. The Campbell County Coroner’s Office confirmed the location, though the official cause and manner of death have not yet been determined.
The Covington Police Department announced the recovery Sunday and stated that investigators have found no indication of foul play thus far. However, authorities cautioned that a final determination rests with the coroner’s office.
Last Seen in Late April
Foust, a fine arts major in the College of Arts and Sciences, vanished on April 27, when surveillance cameras in Covington’s Latonia neighborhood captured the student’s final known steps. The student had been expected to attend an afternoon class at Northern Kentucky University that day but never arrived, friends said.
The site where the body was found sits roughly three miles from that last confirmed sighting. Wilder is a small city along the Licking River in northern Kentucky, approximately nine miles south of Cincinnati.
Covington police issued a public alert about the disappearance on April 30, calling for anyone with information to contact authorities. What followed was an extensive search operation that deployed water rescue teams, drone operators, and volunteer trackers across the Cincinnati suburbs over nearly four weeks.
Puzzling Clues Left Behind
Details of the disappearance troubled friends from the outset. Foust’s phone left at home and a backpack that was later found on the Northern Kentucky University campus created a confusing trail, according to accounts from friends. Officers brought in drone pilots to survey areas that ground teams could not easily access and deployed divers to search waterways near where Foust was last seen.
Authorities have not yet explained how Foust ended up at the former industrial property or what occurred in the hours after leaving home. The police department thanked EquuSearch Midwest and other local agencies that provided personnel and equipment during the search effort, and indicated no further case details will be disclosed until the coroner completes its work.
Campus Mourns a Senior Weeks From Graduation
Foust had been scheduled to graduate earlier this month, a milestone the student was weeks away from achieving when the disappearance occurred. Northern Kentucky University issued a public statement expressing grief and offered mental health resources to anyone affected by the loss.
The university pointed students, faculty and staff to NKU Counseling Services, available around the clock at (859) 572-5650. Administrators also thanked the Covington Police Department and the volunteers who devoted weeks to locating Foust.
Awaiting Coroner’s Findings
Central questions about what happened between April 27 and the discovery remain unanswered. Detectives have assembled a timeline anchored by the surveillance footage from Latonia, the backpack recovered on campus, and the phone left behind, but that chronology is likely to be reviewed once forensic results become available.
While investigators have said repeatedly that evidence collected so far does not point to foul play, they have emphasized that the determination of cause and manner of death belongs to the coroner’s office. The case file remains open, and the police department has said it will not release additional information until that office issues its findings.
The search that drew police divers, drone operators and volunteers across northern Kentucky has ended, even as the answers the Foust family has waited weeks to hear remain days or weeks away.
