ROME — Pope Francis met on Wednesday with the parents of an American college student whose body was found in the Tiber River this week, a victim of what the police are calling robbery and murder.

In an early morning private and unscheduled meeting with the parents before his usual audience with pilgrims, Francis expressed “feelings of deepest sympathy and compassion, and his closeness in prayer to the Lord” for the family’s loss, the Vatican said in a statement. The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, identified the parents as Nick and Jodi Solomon.

The Solomons’ 19-year-old son, Beau Solomon, a student of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, arrived in Rome last Thursday to attend summer classes at John Cabot University, an American college in downtown Rome. He went out for drinks with friends in the Trastevere neighborhood near the college before disappearing around 1 a.m. on Friday, just hours after his arrival.