The Search for a Missing Brooklyn Woman Continues in Orange County

On Saturday the New York State Police used helicopters north of New York City to search for a 25-year-old Brooklyn woman who has been missing since early Wednesday morning.

Sate police said that they seized the car of a man with whom the woman, Laura Garza, was last seen about 4 a.m. together on Wednesday as they left Marquee, a nightclub on 10th Avenue in Chelsea. State police released a statement on Saturday and said that Garza and the man , Michael Mele, 23, were seen together early Wednesday in Orange County, N.Y., which is north of New York City. Mele is from Middletown, in Orange County and he turned himself in to the police in Newburgh on a minor, unrelated offense committed in New York City, according to the statement. Sgt. William Ransom, a Newburgh police official, said that Mele was accompanied by a lawyer and was responding to a NYC warrant on a low-level violation but he was unsure of the details. Mele was then taken into custody by the NYPD and on Saturday Lt. Anthony Volpe, Rockland County jail official, said the Mele was arraigned before a judge in Clarkstown on a second unrelated warrant and was in a Rockland County jail. State police said that they had custody of the car Mele had been driving but he has not been questioned at any length regarding the missing woman. State police are currently precluded from speaking with him about the case. The statement describes Garza as a victim and said that forensic teams were gathering evidence and search warrants were being executed, on top of searching by air. Police in NYC said that foul play was suspected in the disappearance. The club had turned over video footage and provided information to investigators, according to a spokeswoman for Marquee. Garza moved from Texas to NYC to look for work and lived in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn with her younger cousin in a waterfront building with a view of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Adam Akesson, 25, is a neighbor in the building and he said that he met Garza two weeks ago in the elevator when she was returning to her fifth-floor apartment after walking her dog. He said that she asked him what kind of things were there to do in the neighborhood and he told her about the local bars and she was very excited to meet new people. Akesson said that Garza definitely seemed like the club type and she seemed very friendly and attractive and she had a big smile on her face. He said that he was surprised that she had started talking so freely in the elevator and she seemed not to have her guard up like most New Yorkers do.