Skip to content. She explained that Laura's mother was expecting for her daughter to come in the door until that dream was shattered Friday afternoon, and had not turned off her phone in 16 months, hoping every night to get a phone call from Laura.
We have moments when we cry. We have moments when we laugh," Villalobos said in a phone interview from her restaurant in Mission, Texas. He has been investigated but not charged in the case. Back to Article. Close Menu. Search for:. Follow Us Facebook Twitter Instagram. That evening, the 3rd of December, Laura went to a Manhattan nightspot Marquee to meet a few friends and have a few drinks. None of her friends or family saw her after she left the nightclub that night.
She never made it home. Her family tried to get in touch with her but they couldn't reach her by phone. Laura was reported missing. Police went to the Marquee bar and spoke to people who were there that night. They also obtained surveillance footage from the club. Laura left the club in the early hours of the morning. She was seen on the footage leaving with a man.
Others who were at the club that night said that they saw Laura and the man she left with dancing and flirting and having fun inside the nightclub. They were seen again, after leaving the club, a couple of hours later in Newburgh. Police knew exactly who the man seen on the surveillance footage with Laura was. His name was Michael Mele. Michael was a registered sex offender. The surveillance footage showed Laura and Michael leaving the club at 4am.
They were seen a couple of hours later sitting in Michael's car in Newburgh which was a few miles from Michael's apartment in Wallkill. The journey was around 60 miles from New York. Detective Brian Timmons called Michael. He said that he told Michael that Laura was missing and Michael told him that he remembered meeting "a female whose first name began with 'L' and that she lived in Texas in a town near Mexico but according to Michael, they went their separate ways at the end of the night and agreed to meet up at the same nightclub the following week.
Michael said that she told him she was meeting up with a friend in Manhattan. At that point, Michael was cooperative but when police brought him to the station to be questioned, he refused to answer questions.
He remained silent and would not cooperate with the investigation into Laura's disappearance. Police saw that he had what appeared to be a bite mark on his finger and scratches on his back. He provided an explanation for that. The bite mark wasn't a bite mark at all, according to Michael. It was a cut he got from a knife at the restaurant where he worked and the cat caused the scratches on his back. Police were convinced that he was involved in Laura's disappearance. But they had to prove it if he wasn't prepared to talk.
However, did Laura Garza know who or what she was leaving the club with? At some point, Garza split up from her friend and was captured on video leaving the location with her dancing partner and another man.
This led cops to the upstate home of the sex offender, sources said. Investigators believe that whatever happened to Garza occurred upstate , and the New York State Police are now leading the investigation. Two Men questioned in the case of missing Laura Garza.
On Friday night, the police were questioning two people they suspected were involved in Ms. Browne, the chief police spokesman. To further discuss the case, get updates and provide your own opinions, go to Scared Monkeys. Cops also said they found a piece of carpet mysteriously cut out in an apartment Mele maintains near the family home.
They said it appears to have been cleaned thoroughly with bleach and there was a large strip of carpeting removed from his apartment. However, Garza's body has not been found and Mele has not been charged in her disappearance. Cops said at the time they suspected believe Mele drove Garza back to his condo in upstate Walkill and killed her, wrapping her body in that length of carpet.
Cops also said Mele frantically tossed evidence, including a woman's shoe, that was discovered in several dumpsters, one of which sits near a Quiznos franchise he operates with his father William Mele, a retired MTA assistant deputy police chief. Authorities have also sought other women whom the sex offender may have approached.
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