Details Around Club Disappearance Sound Nightmarish

As the investigation continues for the missing body of Laura Garza, the 25-year-old last seen leaving the nightclub Marquee early Wednesday morning, the details that have come in are not very pretty. Police are still searching around the Wallkill home of Michael Mele, the Quizno's franchise owner and convicted sex offender Garza was last spotted leaving the club with. Yesterday they found a woman's shoe near Mele's apartment in the dumpster he was seen scouring through in recent days, a piece of cloth resembling women's undergarments in a nearby shrub and bite marks and scratches on Mele himself.

While yesterday it had only come out that Mele had been convicted of "forcible touching," now it has been revealed that he is on probation after being arrested in April 2007 for masturbating on women in the parking lot at the Palisades Center Mall in Nyack. He is being held in custody in Rockland County for violating that probation by drinking at Marquee Tuesday night and contrary to earlier reports has not been cooperative in talking with investigators.

Police originally focused in on Mele after high-tech cameras in Marquee were able to zoom in on footage of he and Garza dancing at the club. The other man the two left with, a friend of Mele's, has been talking to cops. He told them that the pair "had been making out in the club" and that "(Mele) wanted to have sex with her, and they all left the club." Apparently Mele did not share that same information with his girlfriend, whom he employed to help him remove bleached and cut out sections of his carpet Wednesday. Police described the section of the rug missing as "enough to wrap a body in."

While the investigation is being conducted as a homicide, police are still holding out hope that Garza might still be alive. Garza had just relocated to New York from Texas and one of her new neighbors in Bay Ridge told the Times that she "seemed not to have her guard up the way New Yorkers often do." But a longtime friend defended her, saying, "It's not like her to do anything stupid like this, to leave with a guy from a club."

Top Photo Courtesy AP/Adam Bosch

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Billy Parker in News on December 7, 2008 11:26 AM

Comments [rss]

MikeAM

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Wass (doorman from Marquee) might memorize a list of names (with faces) of all registered sex-offenders. I'm pretty sure remembering all the socialites, models, upcoming actors, etc is enough for him to remember when deciding who gets in. Any sex offender who dresses well will be let in...it's all about image.

NannyState

Very beautiful women would be well advised to have a big guard dog with them when they go out clubbing.

My services are, of course, available.

Tgirl

[4] well, I haven't. Maybe growing up in NY instills you with a different set of street smarts than these rubes who come here from out of state thinking that the city is their playpen and everyone is looking out for them.

NEWS FLASH: the world is a dangerous place, the person who is supposed to look out for you is YOU, and you should listen to your mother's advice, and not trust strangers.

robingee

This Mele dude sounds like a real winner.

Amanda Harletsch

It is not sexist for women to be aware of danger. To bring that awareness of danger plays and strengthens in the freedom we all have.

What is sexist is to remove responsibility from the attacker, to blame women for the sick behavior of men. Like in those scary places with systematized cultural women abuse where a rape victim then is stoned to dead, or bath in acid for going to school.

Amanda Harletsch

#3:(from experience) NYC is way below 3rd world cities in many aspects, beginning with is pride in classism, and its terrible living standrds. Quality of life a la NYC is something somewhere else.

longacre

#9: The list of sex offenders is massive. Wouldn't work.

#10: That is a really good idea.

babyfishmouth

Maybe the states could add something to someone's ID that notes they are a registered sex offender, similar to the "Under 21 until xx/xx/xxxx" that's on driver's licenses now. That way, when the IDs are shown to a bouncer or swiped through a machine, the bouncer would know to throw them out. It wouldn't protect everyone, but it certainly might cut down on guys who are going to clubs to prey on vulnerable women.

Mr Mel

The clubs should be given a list of the sex offenders and their photos so the security people can watch for them and send them on their way. They shouldn't have the right to mix with uninformed people who would be subject to their warped ways.

Maybe it's time to start a campaign to warn club-goers of the dangers involved.

The Edge

#7- Castrate them and cut their hands off.

IMO.

bornbrednewyorker

wideeyedgradstudent well said.

Perhaps the bigger issue is how to deal with registered sex offenders to keep this from happening in the future. Curfews? Tracking bracelets?

Clarice City

@ides: Not sexist. Smart.

I follow that rule anytime I go out with friends and I'm happily married - surely not looking for a date, but sometimes you find your friends hanging around creepy people and you have to be able to stay alert.

Is it sexist to say avoid drunk men? I don't think so.

ides_of_march

Very often sociopaths are incredibly charming and manipulative individuals; and accomplished pick-up artists. For them, young women at a club at 4am with alcohol impaired judgement is like shooting ducks in a pond.

wideeyedgradstudent

While we can SAY that people should always exercise caution when going out/drinking/etc., let's not get accusatory and self-righteous. this girl is still missing and if the worst occurred as it's starting to seem, well, obviously nothing she did/did not do excuses the possible tragedy.

how many of us have gone out, been excited and attracted to someone and went home with them? got caught in the moment, felt good after a few drinks, felt young and invincible and deliriously happy, without thinking of the possibility that the person we were leaving a club/bar with was a crazy homicidal maniac...we did this before NYC was cleaned up, before SATC. Random hookups/one night stands are not a new New York thing.

This is a tragic story, but it's one that could have happened to many of us, sadly.

angry_pickle

Garza had just relocated to New York from Texas

Let this be a lesson to anyone else from the country who come here thinking NYC is exactly like the NYC of Sex in the City. NYC is already on its way in being a 2nd-tier world city; the financial crisis will see to that. Add to it the increasing crime rate.

But a longtime friend defended her, saying, "It's not like her to do anything stupid like this, to leave with a guy from a club."

They are of course in denial.

ides_of_march

I hate to sound sexist but ladies, please, be careful when you go out clubbing. Go with friends, leave with them too, don't stay out late. Easy on the booze, it's harder to spot the creeps when you're drunk.