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 The body of an American student who went missing in a mountainous region of Siberia has been found, investigators and the State Department said Monday. 
 
 Police, rescuers and volunteers had been combing the area in search of Missouri native Colin Madsen. The 25-year-old disappeared after leaving his guesthouse in the Russian Republic of Buryatia's village of Arshan on March 27, reportedly without wearing a coat. 
 
 His body was found Sunday about one mile from Arshan at the foot of the Sayan Mountains, according to Russia's Investigative Committee. 
 
 Colin Madsen, whose body was found Sunday. Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs 
 
 There were no obvious signs of injury, Madsen's clothing was intact and he was carrying personal items and money, the committee said in a statement in Russian. 
 
 Investigators have yet to establish exactly how he died or why he left the guest house without telling friends. 
 
 The State Department confirmed Madsen's death but referred questions about the circumstances to Russian authorities. 
 
 "We extend our deepest condolences to his loved ones," it said in a statement. "The U.S. Embassy in Moscow is providing consular assistance. Out of respect for Mr. Madsen's family during this difficult time, we have no further comment.‎" 
 
 Madsen entered a student exchange program in Irkutsk State Linguistic University in 2013. He spoke fluent Russian and had traveled to Arshan four times before his disappearance. 
 
 Madsen and two friends were planning to scale a 1.2-mile high mountain known as the "Love Peak," according to local reports. 
 
 Daily temperatures in the region have been hovering around 32 degrees, with rain and sleet, hampering the search. 
 
 Local shamans joined the search operation, regional news site Baikal-daily.ru reported. 
 
 "There are plenty of sacred sites here," shaman Radna Dashitsyrenova was quoted as saying. "Their hosts may mislead [hikers]. You need to pay them honors before a trip, otherwise such tragedies would happen." 
 
 Though the population of Buryatia is split between Buddhism and Orthodox Christianity, beliefs persist in traditional animistic cults worshiping various spirits of the land. ||||| A U.S. student missing for over a week in eastern Siberia has been found dead, Russian investigators said today. 
 
 Colin Madsen’s body was found by rescuers about a mile from the village where the Missouri man had disappeared in the Buryatia region, investigators said in a statement released by the local branch of Russia’s Investigative Committee, the equivalent of the FBI. 
 
 Russian police had earlier opened a possible murder inquiry into Madsen's vanishing in the foothills of the Sayan mountains, roughly 3,000 miles from Moscow, where a search for the student has been gradually intensifying since last Monday. 
 
 WHAT TO KNOW Russian police say they have found the body of U.S. student Colin Madsen, 25, who went missing in eastern Siberia over a week ago. 
 
 But today’s statement said that there were no signs of outward injury on Madsen’s body or any indication he had been robbed. Investigators said a cause of death has not yet been established but the statement suggested that it may be related to drugs. 
 
 Police are now testing Madsen’s body for traces of narcotics and the statement noted that the group with which Madsen had been travelling had taken drugs in the day before his disappearance. 
 
 Police today said the murder inquiry remained open while the full circumstances around Madsen’s death were established. 
 
 Madsen, 25, a native of Jefferson City, Missouri, who was studying at a university in the nearby city of Irkutsk, vanished a week ago early on a Sunday morning in the Sayan mountains, where he was on a hiking trip with friends. The manner of his disappearance has puzzled police and his friends: Madsen left the guest house where the group was staying in the village of Arshan, without warning at around 5 a.m. and wearing only a T-shirt and trousers despite freezing temperatures outside. He had not been seen since. 
 
 Dozens of officers, as well as a number of Madsen's local friends, had been searching forests around the village for him since then. 
 
 Madsen had been traveling with three friends, two local Russians and another American student, on exchange at the same university. The friends have told police that Madsen had intended to join them on an early morning hike but when they woke up they found him missing and all of his equipment still laid out. 
 
 A number of Madsen’s friends have told ABC News that it was uncharacteristic of him to leave without warning in the middle of the night or without appropriate clothing. The friends traveling with him have told police Madsen had been behaving normally before he disappeared and that he was excited for the day’s hike. Police have said the group had not quarreled in the day before Madsen left. 
 
 Madsen had been studying in at Irkutsk State Linguistics University since 2013 and had repeatedly visited the area around Arshan, friends said. He knew the area well and spoke fluent Russian. 
 
 Madsen’s body has been transferred to the city of Ulan-Ude for testing. His mother is already in eastern Siberia, where she had arrived to participate in the search. ||||| MOSCOW (AP) — Russian investigators say the body of an American student has been found on the outskirts of a Siberian village, a week after he vanished from a guesthouse in the middle of the night. 
 
 A statement from the Investigative Committee said Colin Madsen's body was found Monday about 1.5 kilometers (a mile) outside Arshan, a resort village poplar for its mineral springs and proximity to mountains. 
 
 The statement said there were no visible injuries to the 25-year-old Madsen and that his documents and money had been left untouched. 
 
 Madsen, who was a student at a university in Irkutsk, came to Arshan on March 26 with friends who intended to hike to a mountain summit. But he left the guesthouse between 2 and 5 a.m., without a coat despite freezing temperatures. ||||| Rescuers found the body of a missing 25-year-old student of one of the universities of the city of Irkutsk. Picture: Arigus TV 
 
 The body of the 25 year old US citizen was found dead two kilometres from Arshan village where he was staying when he disappeared. Initial local TV reports suggest he had numerous injuries which might indicate murder, but later it was suggested he may have frozen to death. 
 
 'As a result of search activities in the village of Arshan in Buryatia, Tunkinsky district, on the slopes of the mountain range Eastern Sayan, rescuers found the body of a missing 25-year-old student of one of the universities of the city of Irkutsk,' said an official statement from police. The cause of death was 'being investigated'. 
 
 Earlier Madsen's mother, Dana, had promised to pay 100,000 roubles for any useful information about her son's whereabouts. Picture: Arigus TV, Dana Madsen-Calcutt 
 
 The head of Buryatia's search and rescue service Pavel Shubin said: 'He was found by rescuers. Now police is working at the spot. Then the body will be brought down to the village.' 
 
 Madsen, from Jefferson City, Missouri, had been studying at a linguistics university in Irkutsk. He was on a vacation with Russian friends - and an American - when he died, it is understood. 
 
 Madsen evidently left his guest house two hours before the group were due to climb local 2,412-metre high Peak of Love (7,913 feet), a mysterious mountain in the Eastern Sayan range in Buryatia, a Buddhist region in southern Siberia, close to Lake Baikal. 
 
 Madsen evidently left his guest house two hours before the group were due to climb local Peak of Love. Pictures: Vlad Rasputin 
 
 He had gone out without a coat, wearing a T-shirt in sub zero night temperatures. His documents and money was untouched on his body. 
 
 Among the group with Madsen, were students who had taken drugs the night he vanished, said Arigus TV. Tests will be conducted for alcohol, narcotic or other toxic and poisonous substances. 
 
 The body of the 25 year old US citizen was found dead two kilometres from Arshan village where he was staying when he disappeared. Pictures: The Siberian Times, @baikal_meridian 
 
 Earlier Madsen's mother, Dana, had promised to pay 100,000 roubles for any useful information about her son's whereabouts. Police had earlier quizzed his friends using a polygraph. 
 
 The Russian Investigative Committee last week opened a murder probe into Madsen's disappearance
– A Missouri man attending college in Russia headed with friends on Easter weekend to a popular resort town known for its mineral springs, with plans to hike a mountain, the AP reports. But when 25-year-old Colin Madsen's friends—two Russian locals and an American student—woke up early Easter morning, Madsen wasn't in their Arshan guesthouse, having left in the wee hours in only a T-shirt and pants in the brutal Siberian cold, ABC News reports. Russian investigators announced Monday that after a massive search, Madsen's body had been located about a mile from where he was last seen. A statement by the country's Investigative Committee says Madsen didn't have outward injuries or seem roughed up, and was still carrying money and other items, per NBC News. Madsen, a student at Irkutsk State Linguistic University who spoke fluent Russian and who had visited the resort a handful of times, was to ascend the 1.2-mile "Love Peak," and his companions said he had seemed pumped the day before and that there was no tiff that would explain why Madsen had taken off in the middle of the night (the AP reports he slipped out between 2am and 5am on March 27). But while investigators haven't determined a cause of death, ABC reports that the IC's statement "suggested" his death may have been drug-related, and it also noted the group had taken drugs the day before Madsen vanished. Police are carrying out drug tests on the body, although they haven't ruled out foul play, and the Siberian Times reports the friends have taken a polygraph. (A woman isolated in Siberia for decades recently emerged.)