State Police Give Another Go at Finding Garza

2009_02_garza.jpg Today in Orange County, police have resumed the search for Laura Garza, the Brooklyn woman who left a nightclub with a registered sex offender three months ago, never to be seen again. State police will focus once again on trails off of Route 17, including the area where they discovered a piece of carpet that they believe came from the apartment of the man Garza left with, Michael Mele, who police have only named as a "person of interest." Garza's family and friends recently camped outside of Mele's apartment, demanding he provide more answers since being labeled by authorities as "uncooperative." As for the search that will take place today and tomorrow, police say that they have declined offers of assistance from the public due to fears of tainting any evidence and said that they can't make headway into Sullivan County because there is too much snow on the ground. Captain Wayne Olson said the previous searches have turned up evidence but told reporters, "We have submitted a number of items for analysis and we've had some results, and I can't go into specific."

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Comments (5) [rss]

I hope this doesn't become a cold case.

Yeah seriously - this case really tore at me when I first heard about it, and now again knowing it's still unsolved...

Not enough interest from local police or what has been the delay in searching new areas?

There was a lot of snow cover in the Hudson Valley in January and first week or two of February. All of the snow has melted back to the grass level so they can start searching again. After tomorrow there will probably be another null for the search with the new snow cover.

If Garza is a free man he will be a dead man walking. Someone will take him out.

that must be a new photo, she's really cute.
hopefully this case will see an ending. people have loose lips, the cops just follow those lips.

I really admire (as much as I can a likely murderer) the way this guy handled the whole thing. The cops KNOW he did it, they're knocking themselves out trying to put together a case, but he told them nothing and they got nothing and he may wind up a free man.

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