After a nearly monthlong search, the Rochester Institute of Technology student who’d gone missing has been found and is safe.

Matthew Grant was reunited with his family on Wednesday.

Matthew and his family want the community to know they are grateful for the help in reuniting them.

His father opens up about the ordeal and its happy ending.

“Hearing his voice was amazing," said Mark Grant, describing the moment he had hoped and prayed for for more than a month – hearing the sound of his son’s voice. “I just reassured him right out of the gate that everything was fine, nothing else mattered and that we can figure anything out and handle anything together.”

The 22-year-old RIT Mechanical Engineering student went missing on Nov. 20, 2023, triggering a massive search. Matthew Grant’s car was finally found on Tuesday by an officer from the borough of Delaware Water Gap’s Police Department in Pennsylvania in a parking lot often used by Appalachian Trail hikers.

“Matthew had found his way to a phone and called me literally while I was in the vehicle with the park rangers,” said Grant. “He called us from the public library in that town and that’s where he called me from.”

He learned his son was unharmed, but questions about where he’d been and why he’d been missing remained.

“We’re going to keep the reasons why he was gone a little close to home for now,” said Grant. “He’s got a lot to process. He had no idea what was going on. He needed some time. He did work through some things and so that’s what he was doing.”

Matthews’ parents, aunt and uncle were reunited with him on Wednesday.

“When he realized everything that was going on, he was very sorry, very apologetic and he wants to thank every person of the ten thousand-plus people personally,” said Grant. 

That includes friends and staff at RIT, said Grant, “He, as far as I know, felt very good, very at home at RIT… So it kind of adds to the maybe mystery if you will about why all of this happened.”

Matthew is in his fourth year of a five-year program at RIT.

“What he chooses to do moving forward is up to him, and what he’s going to get from us is all the love and support that he needs," said the relieved father.

Now, Matthew will be back in his hometown of Onaway, Michigan with his family for Christmas.

“It’s literally everything," said Grant.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Matthew Grant thanked everyone for helping in the search.

“I am doing much better now that I am reunited with my family,” he said in part.