FRANCO GARCIA-21 yo-Brighton MA

For family of Mass. student, no end to the waiting

NEWTON, Mass.—New Balance
running shoes rest on a Boston College floor mat as Luzmila Garcia
starts the climb to her son Franco's attic bedroom.






A
messy stack of mostly chemistry textbooks is spread across the
21-year-old's desk. Folded T-shirts crowd a laundry basket on the floor.

"He's the kind of boy who doesn't care about material things," says the 50-year-old mother.

But a week after Franco disappeared, his possessions are the few things to which the Boston College junior's parents can cling.

Besides that, there is just hope. Hope that there is some reason their son hasn't come home. Hope that he still will.

When Luzmila and her husband, Jose, woke up Wednesday, they knew time wasn't on their side.

Friends
last saw Franco at a Brighton bar in the wee hours of Feb. 22. After
band practice, the chemistry major had gone drinking at the popular
college hangout Mary Ann's with college friends.

But
at closing time, they couldn't find him. A day later, the Garcias
returned in a panic from a New York City vacation after they couldn't
reach him.

A daylong police
search by foot, from the air, and even under water in a reservoir by the
college yielded nothing. There was no new activity on Franco's credit
card. His 1987 Volvo station wagon was parked where he left it, his
clarinet inside.

His
cellphone last pinged off a nearby tower around 1:15 a.m. on Feb. 22.
Since then, there has been no sign of him. Franco hasn't been home, to
his classes, or to his full-time job as a pharmacy technician at CVS.

Standing among her son's belongings, Luzmila toggles between past and present when she speaks of her son a week later.

"He was studying statistics right now," she says, with a nod toward a math book piled among science texts.

Then
she looks toward another book in a nook of his bed's headboard, where
among titles like "The Great Gatsby" and "The Da Vinci Code" is a thick
volume that speaks more to the boy in the 6-foot, 200-pound man.

"He loves Harry Potter," she says.

------

Around 10 a.m., Newton Police Capt. Paul Anastasia calls the Garcias with an update.

State
Police are back trawling the depths of Chestnut Hill Reservoir. The
body of water is between Cleveland Circle and the campus, where Franco
had planned to stay in a friend's dorm the night he disappeared.

His family plans to head to the reservoir soon, including a sister of Luzmila who flew in from Lima, Peru, a day earlier.

More
than two decades ago, Luzmila and Jose emigrated from Peru before
building a life in the Boston suburbs for their four children. Jose has
worked for years as a baker at the same shop. Luzmila has her own little
ice cream shop. The family is close, and bears this pain about Franco
together.


The evening before, Luzmila went to
her 79-year-old mother's home to finally tell her something wasn't
right. Family already had cut off many of her TV channels so she
couldn't watch news reports about her missing grandson.

But Franco's grandmother had questions -- questions his mother couldn't answer.

"Now I'm looking for him," was all Luzmila could say.

------

By 11 a.m. Wednesday, Franco's parents are watching a 19-foot State Police boat cruise the waters by Boston College's stadium.

Motorists
who drive by beep to show support as Franco's loved ones hold up
missing person posters. Someone who's never met the Garcias hands them
coffee and doughnuts. Another stranger gives Luzmila a hug.

"We are desperate," Luzmila tells Anastasia, fearful police may be wrapping up their search.

"We're
looking for anything," the police official says. He asks to search the
family's home and Franco's parents quickly consent.

State Police Col. Marian McGovern arrives at the scene as a snowfall intensifies.

"I'm going to do everything we can to get your son home," she tells Luzmila.

A
little later, authorities announce they're calling off the day's search
because of bad weather. But they say they'll be back at the reservoir
Friday, and Franco's family draws strength from the news.

Like them, detectives haven't given up.

Back home around 2 p.m., a letter waits for Franco's mother.

It is from a stranger who writes in Spanish that she has asked God for Franco's safe return.

Baskets
of food also keep showing up on the front porch for a family that
barely can think of eating. Jose says the plan for the evening is to get
a group together to say the Rosary.

"It's
hard for her when it grows dark, when a new day without her son is
coming," Jose says of his wife. "But prayer in her heart makes it
easier."

Before long, the
Garcias' 12-year-old son, Alejandro, arrives home from school. Scrolling
on his iPod touch, Alejandro discovers Bruce Springsteen has put
Franco's missing-person poster on his Facebook page and Twitter feed.

Franco's
friends from Boston College's Symphonic Band made it happen by getting
in touch with Springsteen's son, a Boston College senior.

"That's pretty good, because there's more than 2 million people following him," the boy says.

Before
long, the Garcias' 9-year-old daughter Bella returns home, too. Her
mother traps her in a hug the fourth-grader knows means more on a day
like this.

Then the family
turns their thoughts to planning a church service and a vigil for later
in the week. They also arrange to meet with a private investigator who
has offered his services for free.

Tears
roll down Luzmila's cheeks as she wonders whom she can trust as this
ordeal continues. But friend Genoveva Tavera tells the mother she must
stay positive.

"Breathe in. Breathe out," she says. "...We cannot waste our energy thinking bad about other people."

Soon, the investigator arrives and Luzmila starts to speak again about how her son vanished.
She starts the story at the beginning, hoping it all will soon end.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2012/03/02/for_family_of_mass_student_no_end_to_the_waiting/

Missing Boston College student Franco Garcia’s body found


Garcia disappeared after a night with friends at a popular bar near campus


A search for a missing Boston College student ended in tragedy on
Wednesday, when his body was pulled from the waters of a reservoir near
campus.

The discovery of Franco Garcia’s
body came more than a month after the 21-year-old chemistry major was
last seen at a bar near campus, where he had been drinking with friends,
The Associated Press reported.

His father, Jose Garcia, broke into tears while speaking to reporters at his Newton, Mass. home.

“I found him,” the Peruvian immigrant said, according to The Associated Press. “But not the way I want.”

The college student had been with fellow members of the school’s
Symphonic Band when he met up with some friends from high school. When
the bar was closing, his buddies reportedly couldn’t find him.

The next day, after he did not return to a friend’s dorm where he was
supposed to sleep, police began to search and his parents flew home from
vacation in a panic.

“It’s been hard, definitely took a toll on the family,” Franco Garcia’s uncle, Antonio Garcia told NECN-TV.

He was reportedly planning on to go to medical school .

“The news of today causes deep sadness, and our hearts go out to the Garcia family and his many friends at Boston College,” said school President the Rev. William Leahy in a statement “More than ever, we need to remember them in our prayers.”

Divers had previously searched the reservoir, where his last cell phone
signal had been traced to. A man walking his dog reported seeing the
body on Wednesday.

The disappearance also attracted attention from Bruce Springsteen, whose son is a student at Boston College.

Garcia’s parents told the Associated Press that police had not
determined how their son died and were still investigating to see if
there was any foul play.

“This is not going to be over until we find the truth of what happened with him,” his mother, Luzmila Garcia said. “The only thing that I ask is to find the truth — what happened with Franco?”


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/missing-boston-college-student-franco-garcia-body-found-article-1.1060545#ixzz1rs9BnPao

Prosecutors say evidence in Franco Garcia case suggests accidental fall into reservoir

Suffolk County prosecutors say that evidence in the death of Franco
Garcia, the missing Boston College student whose body was found
Wednesday in the Chestnut Hill Reservoir, suggests his death was an
accident.

A preliminary examination by state pathologists found that the body
did not have any “broken bones or other significant injury.” Those
findings, along with the cash and other personal effects retrieved from
the young man’s clothing, “are consistent with an accidental fall into
the water,” District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office said in a
statement.

District attorney’s spokesman Jake Wark said both cash and a wallet were found in Garcia’s clothing.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will not make an official
ruling on the cause of death until more toxicology tests are completed.
Some of those tests were requested by Garcia’s family, Wark said.

“Usually, standard toxicological tests are sufficient,” Wark said.
“My understanding is that the family wished for some additional tests to
be done, and the medical examiner’s office intends to accommodate those
requests.”

The investigation into Garcia’s final hours remains ongoing, however,
Wark said, and detectives probing the case are still urging anyone with
information about what Garcia was doing in the early morning hours of
Feb. 22 to call 617-727-8817, Ext 1, or Boston College Police at
617-552-4000.

Garcia was last seen leaving a Cleveland Circle bar at around 12:15
a.m. that day. The Newton resident, who attended night school at the
college, apparently was heading back to the BC campus where his car was
parked, a walk that would take him past the reservoir. An ATM
surveillance camera captured an image of him walking by shortly
afterwards, seemingly unharmed and unworried.
http://www.boston.com/Boston/metrodesk/2012/04/prosecutors-say-evidence-franco-garcia-case-suggests-accidental-fall-into-reservoir/1OccsazhtmeIfN1soYH6cO/index.html