{"id":112092,"date":"2026-01-25T19:41:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T19:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/112092\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T19:41:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T19:41:18","slug":"new-york-boy-15-missing-after-traveling-to-nyc-to-meet-someone-he-met-on-roblox-family-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/112092\/","title":{"rendered":"New York boy, 15, missing after traveling to NYC to meet someone he met on Roblox, family says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The family of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/topic\/missing-persons\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:missing 15-year-old Long Island boy;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">missing 15-year-old Long Island boy<\/a> says their son disappeared two weeks ago after going to New York City to meet someone he met through the online game Roblox.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Thomas Medlin left the Stony Brook School around 3:30 p.m. on\u00a0Jan. 9 and &#8220;ran&#8221; to the Stony Brook Train station, where he boarded a train to Grand Central Station in New York City, the Suffolk County Police Department said in a news release on Jan. 12.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Police released a surveillance image of Thomas at Grand Central Station, where detectives say he was last seen around 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 9.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Thomas\u2019 mother, Eva Yan, told <a href=\"https:\/\/longisland.news12.com\/exclusive-st-james-family-seeks-publics-help-finding-missing-15-year-old-boy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:News 12 Long Island;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">News 12 Long Island<\/a> in an interview that detectives believe her son had gone to meet someone who he met through Roblox, an online game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/doj-busts-greggys-cult-child-exploitation-network-allegedly-coerced-kids-self-harm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Doj Busts \u2018Greggy\u2019s Cult\u2019 Child Exploitation Network That Allegedly Coerced Kids Into Self-harm;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Doj Busts \u2018Greggy\u2019s Cult\u2019 Child Exploitation Network That Allegedly Coerced Kids Into Self-harm<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Thomas Medlin on surveillance video at Grand Central Station in New York City\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1994b440b405d4e70223f719b851512f.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>In this surveillance photo, Thomas Medlin is seen walking in Grand Central Station in New York City around 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 9, police said.<\/p>\n<p>(Fox News)<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Yan said that behavior was unlike Thomas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS\/mvaj7wvj\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Read On The Fox News App;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Read On The Fox News App<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;He has never left our side,&#8221; Yan told the outlet through tears.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I just can\u2019t believe why he left in the first place,&#8221; James Medlin, Thomas\u2019 father, told the outlet.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Thomas Medlin smiling and posing for a photo\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/c2ea83efffbb376c4e1b76982373fe38.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Thomas Medlin&#8217;s parents say this behavior was uncharacteristic of the 15-year-old.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/ai-helps-predator-poachers-expose-elementary-school-music-teacher-accused-sexting-teen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Ai Helps &#039;Predator Poachers&#039; Expose Elementary School Music Teacher Accused Of &#039;Sexting&#039; Teen;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Ai Helps &#8216;Predator Poachers&#8217; Expose Elementary School Music Teacher Accused Of &#8216;Sexting&#8217; Teen<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A Roblox spokesperson told Fox News Digital in an email statement on Sunday that it is &#8220;built with safety at its core&#8221; and offers parental controls that allow parents to completely disable the in-game chat function.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;We are deeply troubled by this incident and are working with law enforcement to support their investigation,&#8221; the spokesperson said. &#8220;Roblox is built with safety at its core, including robust policies to help protect users that go beyond many other platforms. We have filters designed to block the sharing of personal information and don\u2019t allow user-to-user image or video sharing. While no system is perfect, our commitment to safety never ends, and we continue to evolve and strengthen our protections every day. Given this involves an ongoing investigation, we cannot comment further at this time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"grand central holiday season\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/8710ac1048655d2b9eb18f73b7688ab8.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Thomas Medlin traveled from Long Island to New York City by train on Jan. 9, and was last seen at Grand Central Station.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Yan said that family and friends have formed search parties in both Long Island and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/new-york-city\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:New York City;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">New York City<\/a> in search of her missing son.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&amp;af_dp=foxnewsaf%3A%2F%2F&amp;af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fapps-products\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Click Here To Download The Fox News App;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Click Here To Download The Fox News App<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Everyone loves him,&#8221; she told the outlet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Authorities asked anyone with information on the whereabouts of Thomas to call the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/crime\/police-and-law-enforcement\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Suffolk County Police Department\u2019s;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Suffolk County Police Department\u2019s<\/a> Fourth Squad Detectives at 631-854-8452.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Original article source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/new-york-boy-15-missing-after-traveling-nyc-meet-someone-he-met-roblox-family-says\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:New York boy, 15, missing after traveling to NYC to meet someone he met on Roblox, family says;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">New York boy, 15, missing after traveling to NYC to meet someone he met on Roblox, family says<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of a missing 15-year-old Long Island boy says their son disappeared two weeks ago after going&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1965,9,24,55,54,56,49895,50063,50062,49896,36010],"class_list":["post-112092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-grand-central-station","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-roblox","tag-stony-brook-school","tag-suffolk-county-police-department","tag-thomas-medlin","tag-thomas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}