The remains of a beautiful, aspiring dancer who vanished after leaving a Manhattan club with a convicted sex offender have been found in rural Pennsylvania about an hour’s drive from the suspect’s home, police said yesterday.
DNA tests show the bones are those of Laura Garza, a 25-year-old Texas transplant who was last seen at the Marquee nightclub Dec. 3, 2008, authorities said. Found nearby was the wristwatch she is believed to have been wearing, sources added.
“We’ve been in mourning since Friday, when the police told us,” said Garza’s cousin Isela Villalobos, in McAllen, Texas. “Laura’s mother was expecting for her daughter to come in the door, until that dream was shattered Friday afternoon.”
Some ATV riders found Garza’s remains near Mount Cobb outside Scranton on April 11, officials said.
Garza, who had been living in New York for five months when she disappeared, was last seen leaving the club with Michael Mele, who has a history of troubling attacks on women. He remains the prime suspect in the case, authorities said.
Forensic experts still need to officially determine how Garza died.
Mele, 24, has been in Midstate state prison for violating his parole on separate sex offenses. He was denied parole last month.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona, Wires