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Thursday, May 08, 2008

Vt. Police Rule Out Leads, Dispel Rumors in Garza Search


Associated Press
      MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — A crew returned to a creek today to search for a missing Middlebury College student after photographs showed an "item of interest" in the river.
    But a report that photographic evidence of Nick Garza's body being found in Otter Creek was premature, said Middlebury police Officer Vegar Boe, who is heading the investigation.
    The photographs were taken by a Maine team, which flew over Otter Creek in mid-April. Computer analysis has found an object in some of the images that is neither a rock nor a log, Boe said.
    "This is an item of interest. We don't know whether it's a body, let alone Nick Garza's body," he said.
    Crews plan to remove debris below the creek's waterfalls in Middlebury to try to find the object, he said.
    Garza, a freshman from Albuquerque, was last seen as he left a dorm room on the night of Feb. 5. His mother reported him missing five days later.
    Boe also said there was no basis for speculation that Garza might have been a victim of the "smiley face gang," which might have killed college students around the country.
    The smiley-face rumor started after a ground search organized by Natalie Garza, the student's mother, April 26 in which a circular graffiti symbol resembling a happy face was found, Boe said.
    Several New York Police Department detectives said they think an organized group is stalking young male college students, killing them and leaving behind a signature smiley face.
    But the symbol found on the door of a pump station near Otter Creek was painted two years ago by a gang with Latin American ties, Boe said.
    "We're not discounting any theory related to Nick Garza, but these are all graffitis we're familiar with," he said.
    The graffiti has been removed because of the attention, Boe said.
   

Copyright ©2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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