Dec 9, 2008 6:03 am US/Eastern
Middletown Man At Center Of Missing Girl Case
Laura Garza, A 25-Year-Old Aspiring Dancer, Last Seen Leaving Chelsea Nightclub With Convicted Sex Offender
DNA Links Suspect To 2005 Crime Involving 13-Year-Old
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Police are now narrowing their search for 25-year-old Laura Garza to Rockland County after apprehending a potential suspect in the case.
CBS
Five days now and no sign of Laura Garza.
The man last seen with her, a sexual predator by the name of Michael Mele, appears to have scratch marks on his back and neck and a bite mark on his finger.
On Monday night, DNA linked Mele with a prior sex crime with a child. Also, Garza's family told CBS 2 HD she would never have left a New York City hotspot with the suspect.
Garza's aunt, who raised her, told CBS 2 HD she believes something sinister happened at the Marquee club.
"She was at the wrong place at the wrong time," she said.
Garza's aunt believes the person the 25-year-old aspiring dancer met that night must have added something to her drink to get her to leave with him.
"All I'm asking is for anyone … any girl, any young lady that has been terrorized by him or had gotten in contact with him to come forward," she said.
Her family has received an apology from Garza's co-worker, who told them she left the club and left Laura alone with the stranger.
Mele is a convicted sex offender who on Monday was linked to another sex crime, from 2005.
"We received a warrant," Det. Lt. William Barbera said. "Lewdness and exposure to a child under the age of 13."
In 2006, Mele was arrested for another sex crime in the Palisades Mall parking lot in Rockland County.
It was early Wednesday morning when Garza got into a car with Mele and another man and drove more than an hour to Newburgh.
That other man got out of the car in Newburgh and is now cooperating with police, reportedly telling them he text messaged Mele about the girl two days later.
Mele wrote back: "I can't talk to you any more about this. There are three lawyers involved. If anyone calls to talk to you about this, just tell them what you know..."
The informant asked if he did anything wrong. Mele responded: "No, you didn't do anything."
What Mele did, is what investigators want to know. On Monday night, investigators scoured every inch of his Wallkill home as well as nearby woods and dumpsters.
Mele is emerging as sort of a Jekyll and Hyde figure – a ladies man who is also a sex offender and the prime suspect in a possible homicide.
"I was shocked," said Daniella Riosa, who works at the salon next to the Quiznos shop Mele owns in Orange County. "I didn't even believe someone when they told me, I thought it was the wrong person they had or something."
Riosa told CBS 2 HD that Mele often drove fancy cars, including a BMW and even one time a Lamborghini, she recalled.
Last week Mele was driving an Infiniti SUV and cops reportedly found bloodstains inside.
They're now searching every inch of his townhome and even scoured a nearby dumpster where Mele was spotted rummaging for something on Thursday.
"They looked like they were scraping something off the inside of the garbage can," said Michele Kornheisl, Mele's neighbor.
Police are hoping to uncover clues linking Mele to Garza's disappearance, who moved this year from Texas to Brooklyn. Investigators believe she ended up at Mele's townhome where neighbors heard him running the vacuum repeatedly on Thursday.
On Monday, state police with cadaver dogs searched along I-84 – the route between Mele's place and his parents home in Newburgh.
Mele graduated from Newburgh Free Academy in 2003 and was a star on the swim team.
Last year he was put on probation as a level one sex offender after he admitted grabbing and groping several women at Palisades Mall in Rockland County. People who worked near him had no idea of his criminal past.
"He never said anything about it, which I think was wrong. He had young girls working for him and I think they have the right to know," said Christina Molignano, an acquaintance of Mele's.
Mele remains in police custody at the Rockland County jail on a probation violation.
He's lawyered up and refusing to cooperate with police working to find Garza.
CBS 2 HD's Tony Aiello contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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