Photos suggest new lead in Garza search (5/8/08)

Author: Anthony Adragna

Search and rescue workers assisting with the investigation into the disappearance of Middlebury first-year Nick Garza '11 believe they spotted Garza's body in Otter Creek over two weeks ago during an aerial search of the area. Despite the claim, officials with the Middlebury Police Department (MPD) cautioned against premature conclusions.

Members of the Down East Emergency Medical Institute (DEEMI) snapped over 700 pictures from an airplane during a search April 17. Several of those pictures showed an object of interest, which the searchers believe is body with clothes matching the description of Garza's when he disappeared the night of Feb. 5.

"We're pretty confident that it's something that would be jeans and looks like would be shoes," Director of DEEMI Richard Bowie told TV station WCAX. "The colors are correct and there shouldn't be anything else in the area that resembles that."

Searchers base their speculation on two pictures, taken three hours apart on April 17. Efforts to locate the object after its identification suggested it had moved.

Middlebury Police Chief Tom Hanley classified the identification of the object as a body as speculation.

"The department does not make subjective evaluations such as this," he said. "It would be entirely inappropriate. No one, not even the imaging analysts, can offer a definitive opinion. Some media stories have misstated this fact."

Officer Vegar Boe also cautioned that MPD had only received low-quality images, preventing them from making a more definite conclusion.

"The images DEEMI used are high resolution images which have more details than we see," he said. Boe noted that the institute could not verify that "what we see and what they see is even a body, only that it has blue color to it."

Boe said he did not think there had not been any significant delay to the search, but that coordinating search operations remained a challenge.

"All of the search and rescue services in Vermont are volunteer-based and as such there is a lot of coordination between agencies and members to come together," he said. "Most spend days off here or take time off from work to be here in the search effort."

Hanley said concerns about swift water searches led to a delay in deploying of some water resources. Safety remains the utmost concern to the MPD, leading to more caution while searching.

"Standards have been developed over time to ensure the safety of the search crews," Boe said. "Considering that we don't know for sure if there is a body in the river, we don't want to risk lives and injury to searchers."

Search teams will concentrate their efforts on a pile of debris below the falls in town.

"There will be a search of the debris pile some time within the near future, then a much larger scale operation involving moving as much if not all of the pile itself in a few weeks," Boe said. "We will have to engage the services of heavy machinery and search crews in a cooperative effort to ensure a safe and productive search."

Investigators have received dozens of tips suggesting a link between the Garza case and the "Smiley Face Killer" cases. The reference is to a serial killer who is known to prey on tall, athletic, collegiate males who have been drinking.

MPD investigators have contacted police officers that have looked at the cases, but do not believe the Garza case is linked at this point.

"Our investigators have reached out to the retired NYPD detectives [who are investigating the cases], but they have not yet responded," Hanley said. "The facts in the Garza case are inconsistent with media portrayals of the other deaths."

Boe agreed with Hanley, saying the MPD had accounted for several instances of graffiti that resembled other cases.

"Several 'smiley'-like images have been photographed in town and happily these have all been images we have seen over the last two years in dealing with a series of vandalism incidents," he said. "As in any missing person case, we do not rule out the possibility of foul play being involved. However, we have to base investigative conclusions on facts and evidence, not speculations and theories."

In spite of the new leads, the MPD continues to hope that answers to the disappearance of Garza will come soon.

"We hope for a resolution to this case soon so that what ever healing process needs to take place can begin, be it an understanding of why Nick left campus, or what happened to him to lead him to wherever he is now," Boe said. "No one we have interviewed of received information from has ever noted anyone wishing ill upon Nick Garza, and I personally hope no one ever would want to."