WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Critical Discovery in Garza Search

Critical Discovery in Garza Search

Middlebury, Vermont - May 3, 2008

Members of a Maine search team now say they believe they spotted the body of missing college student Nick Garza two weeks ago, while conducting an aerial search of Otter Creek.

A team from the Down East Emergency Medical Institute conducted the search on April 17th, taking more than 700 photos of Otter Creek using high resolution cameras that can see about 15 feet into the water. In two of those photos, crews saw what they believe are the legs and feet of Nick Garza. "We're pretty confident that it's something that would be jeans and looks like would be shoes. The colors are correct and there shouldn't be anything else in the area that resembles that," Richard Bowie, Director of the Down East Emergency Medical Institute told Channel 3.

The Maine team took images of  a seven mile stretch of the creek. Garza was wearing blue jeans and white tennis shoes the night he disappeared. Searchers believe they identified those items in two of the pictures, located just below the water's surface. The first picture was taken at 12:30 p.m., April 17th. The second photo, taken three hours later, shows the object about 10 feet down stream--right behind Middlebury High School. "The object is moving so we can't definitely say it's him because we don't have it, We're fairly confident what it was but we're not just not sure where it is right now,"  Bowie said.

An Ohio lab quickly notified Middlebury police of their findings. Officers rushed to the scene, but it was too dark to search that night. They searched meticulously the next day, but never could find Garza's body. Middlebury Police believe the object likely traveled over the falls in the middle of the town and could be wedged under piles of debris.

A technical water team from Saranac, New York searched the creek and the piles of debris below the falls in early April, long before the aerial team captured pictures of the object from the sky. Police say they're waiting for the water to recede before sending crews back out on this dangerous stretch of river. For Nick Garza's mother, Natalie, everyday spent waiting is one day too many. "From what I understand the dams are being checked, but the fact that my son's body might be laying in the water, it's taking everything from me not just getting in the water by myself to look for Nicholas," Garza said.

Middlebury Police have yet to see the same high resolution photos reviewed at the lab in Ohio, so they have not been able to identify the object of interest as a body. However, police do plan to put search crews back in the water some time this week below the falls. Search dogs will also cover the shoreline, hoping to pick up the scent of any piece of clothing or even something as small as a skin cell that may have washed up on shore.

Keagan Harsha - WCAX News