Posted by
Whitney L. Cooper on Sunday, December 07, 2008 3:51:09 AM
Authorities scoured a swath of upstate New York on Saturday in
hopes of finding a woman last seen leaving a trendy Manhattan club with
a registered sex offender.
State police said they had
searched several locations in Orange County and collected forensic
evidence in the suspicious disappearance of Laura Garza, 25, of
Brooklyn.
While investigators were treating the case
as a possible homicide, "we certainly haven't given up hope she is
alive," state police Capt. Wayne Olson said Saturday
evening.
Garza vanished after leaving the nightclub
Marquee at about 4 a.m. Wednesday with two men. She was last seen
around sunrise that day in the Orange County community of Newburgh,
about 70 miles north of Manhattan, with one of the men, Michael Mele,
23, state police said.
Mele was added to the state
sex offender registry in April after being convicted in Rockland County
of forcible touching, according to the Newburgh Town police. He was
sentenced to six years' probation.
Mele turned
himself in to Newburgh Town police Friday on a warrant accusing him of
a local law violation in New York City, Olson said; he did not know the
details. Mele was apparently later transferred to the Rockland County
Sheriff's Department to be booked on a probation violation charge,
Olson said.
Rockland jail officers said Mele was in
custody Saturday night but had no further
information.
Messages left at Mele's home and with
his lawyer's answering service were not immediately returned
Saturday.
Police combed his apartment complex in
Wallkill, near Newburgh, and used a helicopter to scan surrounding
areas. They also seized his SUV.
The New York Police
Department said it officers questioned Mele.
The
club's security cameras captured Garza and Mele together. Police told
the New York Post she was seen leaving the club willingly with Mele and
another man from upstate New York.
Marquee
spokeswoman Virginia Lam said the Chelsea club was working closely with
police.