In Memoriam: Nicholas Garza
MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Multiple media sources reported on May 27, 2008 that the body of Nick Garza, a former policy debater from Albuquerque Academy and a freshman at Middlebury College who had been missing since February, had been recovered. This was confirmed two days later.
Nicholas was an exceptional young man who was considered a friend by many, both inside and outside the debate community. "Although our loss is terrible," noted Ronald D. Liebowitz, president of Middlebury College, in addressing Nick's college peers, "it cannot compare to the pain that Nick's mother Natalie and his family are experiencing now. Our deepest sympathies remain with them."
The following is an article from the Burlington Free Press.
—
MIDDLEBURY — The night he vanished, Middlebury College student Nicholas Garza wandered due east from a friend's residence hall, toward the creek in which his body would be found almost four months later, instead of north in the direction of his own dorm, police said Wednesday.
Authorities identified the body of the 19-year-old freshman from Albuquerque, N.M., through dental records Wednesday evening, a day after recovery crews removed his remains from Otter Creek near downtown, Middlebury Police Chief Tom Hanley said.
An autopsy showed Garza suffered no injuries or trauma, the chief said, but the procedure revealed little about the cause of Garza's death or clues as to why he followed a seemingly incongruous path in the minutes after 11 p.m. Feb. 5, the last time anyone reported seeing him.
A full report from the Medical Examiner's Office, including potential toxicology results, blood-alcohol content and a determination of the cause and manner of death, is expected in about six weeks, Hanley said.
"There is no sign of foul play," the chief said at his station in Middlebury. "The next step is to put together all the information that we have. We're hoping the medical examiner's report could give us that keystone piece of evidence we need."
Linking the facts
Earlier this month, specially trained dogs from a Maine search-and-rescue organization tracked Garza on a winding route from Stewart Hall past campus buildings, through open fields, onto and then off the porch of a vacant house, and eventually to a spot where a thin trail bends sharply left, then right, to a narrow footbridge over Otter Creek near Middlebury Union High School, Hanley said.
Someone missing that turn, as authorities now believe Garza did, would plummet into the water, which — on the cold night the student disappeared — sported slippery banks and a crust of ice over most of the deep channel, Hanley said.
"It's a very, very slight grade, and then it drops off like this," the chief said as he made a quick downward gesture with his outstretched left hand, "6 feet right into the water."
The dog search occurred May 10 but relied on items police sealed after removing them from Garza's dorm room shortly after his family reported him missing Feb. 10. On their own, the results seemed interesting and helpful, Hanley said. Combining that information with other facts — the discovery of the body almost a mile downstream, aerial photographs from April that likely show a body, and additional tracking-dog information — authorities believe they have answered the investigation's first question: What happened that night?
"We're pretty confident on the 'how,'" Hanley said, but he added authorities remain unsure of the "why." "The cause and manner is still what we're up in the air on."
Garza last was seen leaving Stewart Hall, a campus dormitory south of his residence in Allen Hall. Police have said some drinking occurred during the gathering that six students attended, and authorities heard various accounts of Garza's level of intoxication, ranging from none at all to highly inebriated. He was not wearing a coat, and until Tuesday investigators had located neither his wallet nor his cell phone, on which no activity transpired.
The wallet, containing Garza's photo identification, and the phone were in the pockets of his jeans, Hanley said.
The search dogs followed a course beginning in Stewart Hall and leading to the creek, and then their handlers intentionally confused the canines and had them repeat the procedure two more times, Hanley said. The result remained the same.
"The dogs track and track and track, and they go right into the water," he said.
Autopsy challenges
A coroner's examination in situations such as this is difficult and unlikely to produce valuable results, said Dr. Masatoshi Kida, director of autopsy services at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington and a professor of pathology at the University of Vermont.
Kida is unaffiliated with the Garza case.
"I'm not optimistic in any sense," Kida said. "With several months passed, decomposition will mask what happened."
The water temperature has been rising for weeks, creating conditions that would cause remains to deteriorate more quickly, he said. That would hamper determining a person's blood-alcohol content or even the cause of death, unless some visible trauma occurred, such as a skull fracture or stab wound that nicked a bone, Kida said.
Kida said he has confidence in the state Medical Examiner's Office to perform as thorough a forensic autopsy as possible.
"They do their best all the time, but sometimes even experts have limitations," the doctor said. "Everybody will do their best job to try to help the family members."
On campus, Garza is being remembered as an energetic and friendly young man with passions for politics and poetry, debate and literature, hockey and music, Middlebury College President Ronald Liebowitz said in a statement issued shortly after the identification of Garza's remains.
"Nothing is harder for a college community than the loss of one of its own students. Although our loss is terrible, it cannot compare to the pain that Nick's mother, Natalie, and his family are experiencing now," Liebowitz said. "Our deepest sympathies remain with them."
Liebowitz said the campus community will gather this fall in remembrance of Garza.
Update:
Police: No foul play in Vt. student's 2008 death
By JOHN CURRAN
Associated Press Writer
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- A Middlebury College freshman who died under mysterious circumstances last year was drinking heavily in the hours before he vanished from campus and investigators found no evidence to suggest it was anything more than an accident, according to a new report.
Nicholas Garza, 19, of Albuquerque, N.M., disappeared Feb. 5, 2008, during a winter break at the college, prompting months of searching. On May 27, his body was found in a nearby creek.
An autopsy found no signs of assault or other trauma, but it failed to pinpoint a cause of death. Police Chief Tom Hanley said Friday it may never be known how Garza died.
"We will never be able to say how he got into the creek, because there are no witnesses,'' he said.
Police on Thursday released a 30-page report summarizing Garza's disappearance, the search for him and the recovery of his remains.
In it, investigators said Garza and fellow student Taylor Smith consumed at least 18 shots of rum and tequila between 8:15 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. in a dormitory room the night he went missing. He vanished after leaving the dorm at about 11 p.m., according to the report.
Garza had bought the rum and tequila two days before his disappearance using a fake ID, Smith told police.
Using information provided by witnesses about Garza's alcohol intake, the director of Middlebury College's health center, Dr. Mark Peluso, estimated that his blood alcohol content was between .24 and .33, according to the report by Sgt. Michael Christopher. That would be far above the legal limit for adult drivers (.08).
No BAC could be determined at autopsy because of the effects of long-term immersion in the creek and decomposition of the body, the report said.
The search for Garza was hampered by a series of snowstorms in the five days after he was last seen, with search-and-rescue teams, cadaver-sniffing dogs and other law enforcement personnel combing the 350-acre campus and environs in a hunt for his body and belongings.
Nearly four months after he disappeared, Garza's body was found in the creek, among sunken timbers in a floating debris pile below a waterfall.
MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Multiple media sources reported on May 27, 2008 that the body of Nick Garza, a former policy debater from Albuquerque Academy and a freshman at Middlebury College who had been missing since February, had been recovered. This was confirmed two days later.
Nicholas was an exceptional young man who was considered a friend by many, both inside and outside the debate community. "Although our loss is terrible," noted Ronald D. Liebowitz, president of Middlebury College, in addressing Nick's college peers, "it cannot compare to the pain that Nick's mother Natalie and his family are experiencing now. Our deepest sympathies remain with them."
The following is an article from the Burlington Free Press.
—
MIDDLEBURY — The night he vanished, Middlebury College student Nicholas Garza wandered due east from a friend's residence hall, toward the creek in which his body would be found almost four months later, instead of north in the direction of his own dorm, police said Wednesday.
Authorities identified the body of the 19-year-old freshman from Albuquerque, N.M., through dental records Wednesday evening, a day after recovery crews removed his remains from Otter Creek near downtown, Middlebury Police Chief Tom Hanley said.
An autopsy showed Garza suffered no injuries or trauma, the chief said, but the procedure revealed little about the cause of Garza's death or clues as to why he followed a seemingly incongruous path in the minutes after 11 p.m. Feb. 5, the last time anyone reported seeing him.
A full report from the Medical Examiner's Office, including potential toxicology results, blood-alcohol content and a determination of the cause and manner of death, is expected in about six weeks, Hanley said.
"There is no sign of foul play," the chief said at his station in Middlebury. "The next step is to put together all the information that we have. We're hoping the medical examiner's report could give us that keystone piece of evidence we need."
Linking the facts
Earlier this month, specially trained dogs from a Maine search-and-rescue organization tracked Garza on a winding route from Stewart Hall past campus buildings, through open fields, onto and then off the porch of a vacant house, and eventually to a spot where a thin trail bends sharply left, then right, to a narrow footbridge over Otter Creek near Middlebury Union High School, Hanley said.
Someone missing that turn, as authorities now believe Garza did, would plummet into the water, which — on the cold night the student disappeared — sported slippery banks and a crust of ice over most of the deep channel, Hanley said.
"It's a very, very slight grade, and then it drops off like this," the chief said as he made a quick downward gesture with his outstretched left hand, "6 feet right into the water."
The dog search occurred May 10 but relied on items police sealed after removing them from Garza's dorm room shortly after his family reported him missing Feb. 10. On their own, the results seemed interesting and helpful, Hanley said. Combining that information with other facts — the discovery of the body almost a mile downstream, aerial photographs from April that likely show a body, and additional tracking-dog information — authorities believe they have answered the investigation's first question: What happened that night?
"We're pretty confident on the 'how,'" Hanley said, but he added authorities remain unsure of the "why." "The cause and manner is still what we're up in the air on."
Garza last was seen leaving Stewart Hall, a campus dormitory south of his residence in Allen Hall. Police have said some drinking occurred during the gathering that six students attended, and authorities heard various accounts of Garza's level of intoxication, ranging from none at all to highly inebriated. He was not wearing a coat, and until Tuesday investigators had located neither his wallet nor his cell phone, on which no activity transpired.
The wallet, containing Garza's photo identification, and the phone were in the pockets of his jeans, Hanley said.
The search dogs followed a course beginning in Stewart Hall and leading to the creek, and then their handlers intentionally confused the canines and had them repeat the procedure two more times, Hanley said. The result remained the same.
"The dogs track and track and track, and they go right into the water," he said.
Autopsy challenges
A coroner's examination in situations such as this is difficult and unlikely to produce valuable results, said Dr. Masatoshi Kida, director of autopsy services at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington and a professor of pathology at the University of Vermont.
Kida is unaffiliated with the Garza case.
"I'm not optimistic in any sense," Kida said. "With several months passed, decomposition will mask what happened."
The water temperature has been rising for weeks, creating conditions that would cause remains to deteriorate more quickly, he said. That would hamper determining a person's blood-alcohol content or even the cause of death, unless some visible trauma occurred, such as a skull fracture or stab wound that nicked a bone, Kida said.
Kida said he has confidence in the state Medical Examiner's Office to perform as thorough a forensic autopsy as possible.
"They do their best all the time, but sometimes even experts have limitations," the doctor said. "Everybody will do their best job to try to help the family members."
On campus, Garza is being remembered as an energetic and friendly young man with passions for politics and poetry, debate and literature, hockey and music, Middlebury College President Ronald Liebowitz said in a statement issued shortly after the identification of Garza's remains.
"Nothing is harder for a college community than the loss of one of its own students. Although our loss is terrible, it cannot compare to the pain that Nick's mother, Natalie, and his family are experiencing now," Liebowitz said. "Our deepest sympathies remain with them."
Liebowitz said the campus community will gather this fall in remembrance of Garza.
Update:
Police: No foul play in Vt. student's 2008 death
By JOHN CURRAN
Associated Press Writer
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- A Middlebury College freshman who died under mysterious circumstances last year was drinking heavily in the hours before he vanished from campus and investigators found no evidence to suggest it was anything more than an accident, according to a new report.
Nicholas Garza, 19, of Albuquerque, N.M., disappeared Feb. 5, 2008, during a winter break at the college, prompting months of searching. On May 27, his body was found in a nearby creek.
An autopsy found no signs of assault or other trauma, but it failed to pinpoint a cause of death. Police Chief Tom Hanley said Friday it may never be known how Garza died.
"We will never be able to say how he got into the creek, because there are no witnesses,'' he said.
Police on Thursday released a 30-page report summarizing Garza's disappearance, the search for him and the recovery of his remains.
In it, investigators said Garza and fellow student Taylor Smith consumed at least 18 shots of rum and tequila between 8:15 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. in a dormitory room the night he went missing. He vanished after leaving the dorm at about 11 p.m., according to the report.
Garza had bought the rum and tequila two days before his disappearance using a fake ID, Smith told police.
Using information provided by witnesses about Garza's alcohol intake, the director of Middlebury College's health center, Dr. Mark Peluso, estimated that his blood alcohol content was between .24 and .33, according to the report by Sgt. Michael Christopher. That would be far above the legal limit for adult drivers (.08).
No BAC could be determined at autopsy because of the effects of long-term immersion in the creek and decomposition of the body, the report said.
The search for Garza was hampered by a series of snowstorms in the five days after he was last seen, with search-and-rescue teams, cadaver-sniffing dogs and other law enforcement personnel combing the 350-acre campus and environs in a hunt for his body and belongings.
Nearly four months after he disappeared, Garza's body was found in the creek, among sunken timbers in a floating debris pile below a waterfall.
In Memoriam: Nicholas Garza
MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Multiple media sources reported on May 27, 2008 that the body of Nick Garza, a former policy debater from Albuquerque Academy and a freshman at Middlebury College who had been missing since February, had been recovered. This was confirmed two days later.
Nicholas was an exceptional young man who was considered a friend by many, both inside and outside the debate community. "Although our loss is terrible," noted Ronald D. Liebowitz, president of Middlebury College, in addressing Nick's college peers, "it cannot compare to the pain that Nick's mother Natalie and his family are experiencing now. Our deepest sympathies remain with them."
The following is an article from the Burlington Free Press.
—
MIDDLEBURY — The night he vanished, Middlebury College student Nicholas Garza wandered due east from a friend's residence hall, toward the creek in which his body would be found almost four months later, instead of north in the direction of his own dorm, police said Wednesday.
Authorities identified the body of the 19-year-old freshman from Albuquerque, N.M., through dental records Wednesday evening, a day after recovery crews removed his remains from Otter Creek near downtown, Middlebury Police Chief Tom Hanley said.
An autopsy showed Garza suffered no injuries or trauma, the chief said, but the procedure revealed little about the cause of Garza's death or clues as to why he followed a seemingly incongruous path in the minutes after 11 p.m. Feb. 5, the last time anyone reported seeing him.
A full report from the Medical Examiner's Office, including potential toxicology results, blood-alcohol content and a determination of the cause and manner of death, is expected in about six weeks, Hanley said.
"There is no sign of foul play," the chief said at his station in Middlebury. "The next step is to put together all the information that we have. We're hoping the medical examiner's report could give us that keystone piece of evidence we need."
Linking the facts
Earlier this month, specially trained dogs from a Maine search-and-rescue organization tracked Garza on a winding route from Stewart Hall past campus buildings, through open fields, onto and then off the porch of a vacant house, and eventually to a spot where a thin trail bends sharply left, then right, to a narrow footbridge over Otter Creek near Middlebury Union High School, Hanley said.
Someone missing that turn, as authorities now believe Garza did, would plummet into the water, which — on the cold night the student disappeared — sported slippery banks and a crust of ice over most of the deep channel, Hanley said.
"It's a very, very slight grade, and then it drops off like this," the chief said as he made a quick downward gesture with his outstretched left hand, "6 feet right into the water."
The dog search occurred May 10 but relied on items police sealed after removing them from Garza's dorm room shortly after his family reported him missing Feb. 10. On their own, the results seemed interesting and helpful, Hanley said. Combining that information with other facts — the discovery of the body almost a mile downstream, aerial photographs from April that likely show a body, and additional tracking-dog information — authorities believe they have answered the investigation's first question: What happened that night?
"We're pretty confident on the 'how,'" Hanley said, but he added authorities remain unsure of the "why." "The cause and manner is still what we're up in the air on."
Garza last was seen leaving Stewart Hall, a campus dormitory south of his residence in Allen Hall. Police have said some drinking occurred during the gathering that six students attended, and authorities heard various accounts of Garza's level of intoxication, ranging from none at all to highly inebriated. He was not wearing a coat, and until Tuesday investigators had located neither his wallet nor his cell phone, on which no activity transpired.
The wallet, containing Garza's photo identification, and the phone were in the pockets of his jeans, Hanley said.
The search dogs followed a course beginning in Stewart Hall and leading to the creek, and then their handlers intentionally confused the canines and had them repeat the procedure two more times, Hanley said. The result remained the same.
"The dogs track and track and track, and they go right into the water," he said.
Autopsy challenges
A coroner's examination in situations such as this is difficult and unlikely to produce valuable results, said Dr. Masatoshi Kida, director of autopsy services at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington and a professor of pathology at the University of Vermont.
Kida is unaffiliated with the Garza case.
"I'm not optimistic in any sense," Kida said. "With several months passed, decomposition will mask what happened."
The water temperature has been rising for weeks, creating conditions that would cause remains to deteriorate more quickly, he said. That would hamper determining a person's blood-alcohol content or even the cause of death, unless some visible trauma occurred, such as a skull fracture or stab wound that nicked a bone, Kida said.
Kida said he has confidence in the state Medical Examiner's Office to perform as thorough a forensic autopsy as possible.
"They do their best all the time, but sometimes even experts have limitations," the doctor said. "Everybody will do their best job to try to help the family members."
On campus, Garza is being remembered as an energetic and friendly young man with passions for politics and poetry, debate and literature, hockey and music, Middlebury College President Ronald Liebowitz said in a statement issued shortly after the identification of Garza's remains.
"Nothing is harder for a college community than the loss of one of its own students. Although our loss is terrible, it cannot compare to the pain that Nick's mother, Natalie, and his family are experiencing now," Liebowitz said. "Our deepest sympathies remain with them."
Liebowitz said the campus community will gather this fall in remembrance of Garza.
Update:
Police: No foul play in Vt. student's 2008 death
By JOHN CURRAN
Associated Press Writer
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- A Middlebury College freshman who died under mysterious circumstances last year was drinking heavily in the hours before he vanished from campus and investigators found no evidence to suggest it was anything more than an accident, according to a new report.
Nicholas Garza, 19, of Albuquerque, N.M., disappeared Feb. 5, 2008, during a winter break at the college, prompting months of searching. On May 27, his body was found in a nearby creek.
An autopsy found no signs of assault or other trauma, but it failed to pinpoint a cause of death. Police Chief Tom Hanley said Friday it may never be known how Garza died.
"We will never be able to say how he got into the creek, because there are no witnesses,'' he said.
Police on Thursday released a 30-page report summarizing Garza's disappearance, the search for him and the recovery of his remains.
In it, investigators said Garza and fellow student Taylor Smith consumed at least 18 shots of rum and tequila between 8:15 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. in a dormitory room the night he went missing. He vanished after leaving the dorm at about 11 p.m., according to the report.
Garza had bought the rum and tequila two days before his disappearance using a fake ID, Smith told police.
Using information provided by witnesses about Garza's alcohol intake, the director of Middlebury College's health center, Dr. Mark Peluso, estimated that his blood alcohol content was between .24 and .33, according to the report by Sgt. Michael Christopher. That would be far above the legal limit for adult drivers (.08).
No BAC could be determined at autopsy because of the effects of long-term immersion in the creek and decomposition of the body, the report said.
The search for Garza was hampered by a series of snowstorms in the five days after he was last seen, with search-and-rescue teams, cadaver-sniffing dogs and other law enforcement personnel combing the 350-acre campus and environs in a hunt for his body and belongings.
Nearly four months after he disappeared, Garza's body was found in the creek, among sunken timbers in a floating debris pile below a waterfall.
MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Multiple media sources reported on May 27, 2008 that the body of Nick Garza, a former policy debater from Albuquerque Academy and a freshman at Middlebury College who had been missing since February, had been recovered. This was confirmed two days later.
Nicholas was an exceptional young man who was considered a friend by many, both inside and outside the debate community. "Although our loss is terrible," noted Ronald D. Liebowitz, president of Middlebury College, in addressing Nick's college peers, "it cannot compare to the pain that Nick's mother Natalie and his family are experiencing now. Our deepest sympathies remain with them."
The following is an article from the Burlington Free Press.
—
MIDDLEBURY — The night he vanished, Middlebury College student Nicholas Garza wandered due east from a friend's residence hall, toward the creek in which his body would be found almost four months later, instead of north in the direction of his own dorm, police said Wednesday.
Authorities identified the body of the 19-year-old freshman from Albuquerque, N.M., through dental records Wednesday evening, a day after recovery crews removed his remains from Otter Creek near downtown, Middlebury Police Chief Tom Hanley said.
An autopsy showed Garza suffered no injuries or trauma, the chief said, but the procedure revealed little about the cause of Garza's death or clues as to why he followed a seemingly incongruous path in the minutes after 11 p.m. Feb. 5, the last time anyone reported seeing him.
A full report from the Medical Examiner's Office, including potential toxicology results, blood-alcohol content and a determination of the cause and manner of death, is expected in about six weeks, Hanley said.
"There is no sign of foul play," the chief said at his station in Middlebury. "The next step is to put together all the information that we have. We're hoping the medical examiner's report could give us that keystone piece of evidence we need."
Linking the facts
Earlier this month, specially trained dogs from a Maine search-and-rescue organization tracked Garza on a winding route from Stewart Hall past campus buildings, through open fields, onto and then off the porch of a vacant house, and eventually to a spot where a thin trail bends sharply left, then right, to a narrow footbridge over Otter Creek near Middlebury Union High School, Hanley said.
Someone missing that turn, as authorities now believe Garza did, would plummet into the water, which — on the cold night the student disappeared — sported slippery banks and a crust of ice over most of the deep channel, Hanley said.
"It's a very, very slight grade, and then it drops off like this," the chief said as he made a quick downward gesture with his outstretched left hand, "6 feet right into the water."
The dog search occurred May 10 but relied on items police sealed after removing them from Garza's dorm room shortly after his family reported him missing Feb. 10. On their own, the results seemed interesting and helpful, Hanley said. Combining that information with other facts — the discovery of the body almost a mile downstream, aerial photographs from April that likely show a body, and additional tracking-dog information — authorities believe they have answered the investigation's first question: What happened that night?
"We're pretty confident on the 'how,'" Hanley said, but he added authorities remain unsure of the "why." "The cause and manner is still what we're up in the air on."
Garza last was seen leaving Stewart Hall, a campus dormitory south of his residence in Allen Hall. Police have said some drinking occurred during the gathering that six students attended, and authorities heard various accounts of Garza's level of intoxication, ranging from none at all to highly inebriated. He was not wearing a coat, and until Tuesday investigators had located neither his wallet nor his cell phone, on which no activity transpired.
The wallet, containing Garza's photo identification, and the phone were in the pockets of his jeans, Hanley said.
The search dogs followed a course beginning in Stewart Hall and leading to the creek, and then their handlers intentionally confused the canines and had them repeat the procedure two more times, Hanley said. The result remained the same.
"The dogs track and track and track, and they go right into the water," he said.
Autopsy challenges
A coroner's examination in situations such as this is difficult and unlikely to produce valuable results, said Dr. Masatoshi Kida, director of autopsy services at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington and a professor of pathology at the University of Vermont.
Kida is unaffiliated with the Garza case.
"I'm not optimistic in any sense," Kida said. "With several months passed, decomposition will mask what happened."
The water temperature has been rising for weeks, creating conditions that would cause remains to deteriorate more quickly, he said. That would hamper determining a person's blood-alcohol content or even the cause of death, unless some visible trauma occurred, such as a skull fracture or stab wound that nicked a bone, Kida said.
Kida said he has confidence in the state Medical Examiner's Office to perform as thorough a forensic autopsy as possible.
"They do their best all the time, but sometimes even experts have limitations," the doctor said. "Everybody will do their best job to try to help the family members."
On campus, Garza is being remembered as an energetic and friendly young man with passions for politics and poetry, debate and literature, hockey and music, Middlebury College President Ronald Liebowitz said in a statement issued shortly after the identification of Garza's remains.
"Nothing is harder for a college community than the loss of one of its own students. Although our loss is terrible, it cannot compare to the pain that Nick's mother, Natalie, and his family are experiencing now," Liebowitz said. "Our deepest sympathies remain with them."
Liebowitz said the campus community will gather this fall in remembrance of Garza.
Update:
Police: No foul play in Vt. student's 2008 death
By JOHN CURRAN
Associated Press Writer
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- A Middlebury College freshman who died under mysterious circumstances last year was drinking heavily in the hours before he vanished from campus and investigators found no evidence to suggest it was anything more than an accident, according to a new report.
Nicholas Garza, 19, of Albuquerque, N.M., disappeared Feb. 5, 2008, during a winter break at the college, prompting months of searching. On May 27, his body was found in a nearby creek.
An autopsy found no signs of assault or other trauma, but it failed to pinpoint a cause of death. Police Chief Tom Hanley said Friday it may never be known how Garza died.
"We will never be able to say how he got into the creek, because there are no witnesses,'' he said.
Police on Thursday released a 30-page report summarizing Garza's disappearance, the search for him and the recovery of his remains.
In it, investigators said Garza and fellow student Taylor Smith consumed at least 18 shots of rum and tequila between 8:15 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. in a dormitory room the night he went missing. He vanished after leaving the dorm at about 11 p.m., according to the report.
Garza had bought the rum and tequila two days before his disappearance using a fake ID, Smith told police.
Using information provided by witnesses about Garza's alcohol intake, the director of Middlebury College's health center, Dr. Mark Peluso, estimated that his blood alcohol content was between .24 and .33, according to the report by Sgt. Michael Christopher. That would be far above the legal limit for adult drivers (.08).
No BAC could be determined at autopsy because of the effects of long-term immersion in the creek and decomposition of the body, the report said.
The search for Garza was hampered by a series of snowstorms in the five days after he was last seen, with search-and-rescue teams, cadaver-sniffing dogs and other law enforcement personnel combing the 350-acre campus and environs in a hunt for his body and belongings.
Nearly four months after he disappeared, Garza's body was found in the creek, among sunken timbers in a floating debris pile below a waterfall.
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