Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

CLUB GAL MISSING
LEFT CHELSEA HOTSPOT WITH TWO GUYS

NY POST LINK

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12062008/news/regionalnews/club_gal_missing_142935.htm

A stunning young Brooklyn woman vanished from a posh Manhattan nightclub this week - and cops fear she may have been harmed by a convicted sex offender, officials said yesterday.

Laura Garza, 25, of Bay Ridge, was reported missing yesterday after last being seen leaving the celeb-studded club Marquee at 4 a.m. Wednesday with two men.

"We suspect foul play and are concerned for her safety," NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said yesterday.

Police last night were questioning one of the two men, a 25-year-old once convicted of a sex crime, after going to his home in Wallkill, in upstate Orange County.

Investigators did not find Garza at the house, but they found a piece of carpet mysteriously cut out from its place on the floor, a police source said. Blood stains were also found in the house.

Faced with this clue, cops were seeking a search warrant to comb his home, sources said. They also were looking for his car.

Garza and a pal went to the trendy 10th Avenue hotspot - where the likes of Kate Hudson, Derek Jeter, Paris Hilton and Janet Jackson have been spotted partying in the past - for an evening of fun.

She was spotted by club-goers apparently having a good time, dancing and making out with a man.

At some point, Garza split up from her friend and was captured on video leaving the location with her dancing partner and another man.

She appeared to have left with them willingly, and didn't look intoxicated, police sources said.

Sources said the men drove with her upstate. At some point, one got out and went home.

Garza, a native of Mexico who moved to the city from Texas six months ago, and works in a shoe store, never returned home to Bay Ridge and was reported missing yesterday by a roommate.

Police armed with dogs walked through the club yesterday afternoon sniffing for clues of the 5-foot-2, 120-pound beauty.

Witnesses at the club told cops that the men with whom Garza was spotted leaving were "regulars," and were able to identify them. 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.

Garza's family was traveling here from Texas as the search for the woman continued, police sources said.

Additional reporting by Melissa Jane Kronfeld, Tim Perone and Christina Carrega

Brooklyn woman parties with stranger, vanishes after leaving Chelsea club
BY ALISON GENDAR and JOTHAM SEDERSTROM
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Saturday, December 6th 2008, 4:40 AM

(http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/12/06/amd_garza.jpg)(http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/12/06/alg_marquee.jpg)

A stunning Brooklyn woman disappeared during a late night of partying and is feared dead after a stranger lured her away from an infamous Manhattan nightclub.

Curly-haired beauty Laura Garza, 25, was last seen leaving the Tenth Ave. club Marquee around 4 a.m. on Wednesday with Michael Mele, the 23-year-old registered sex offender she met there, police and law enforcement source said.

Mele, the son of retired MTA Assistant Deputy Police Chief William Mele, turned himself in to state police in Newburgh Friday afternoon, sources said. His father and a lawyer accompanied him.

Police have not found Garza's remains, but have physical evidence that leads them to believe she was murdered.

"We are concerned for her safety," said Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne. "We are questioning an individual about her disappearance."

Mele, on six years of probation for a conviction of forcible touching, was being held Friday night on a probation violation, sources said. He has not been charged with any crime.

Video surveillance at the club shows Garza dancing, flirting and talking with Mele for more than 45 minutes before leaving with him in the wee hours of the morning, a source who saw the tape said Friday.

"It didn't look forced."

Garza, who works at a Manhattan Payless Shoe Source, came to Marquee with a co-worker, who left earlier in the evening, the source said.

Police hope to question Mele, who they believe coaxed Garza into going with him to his Wallkill, N.Y., apartment, sources said.

NYPD and State police on Friday night were seeking a search warrant for Mele's apartment, where cops believe a chunk of missing carpet in the building's hallway could hold evidence of a violent assault, a police source said.

Police described Garza as 5-feet-2 and 120 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes, police said.

She moved into the Bay Ridge apartment with her cousin in October.

Marquee, a magnet for the young and famous and their hangers-on, stumbled into trouble in July when police shut it and another club down after undercover cops made seven illegal drug buys, including one for $120 worth of cocaine.

Marquee and other clubs came under heightened enforcement in 2006 after 18-year-old Jennifer Moore was murdered following a night of heavy drinking at nearby Guest House.

"We have brand new high-tech cameras that were used to spot the girl [Garza]," a Marquee spokeswoman said. "We located her, we burned copies of the disk for the police and they've been thanking us profusely ever since."

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS or text their tips to 274637, then enter TIP577.

All calls will remain confidential.

agendar@nydailynews.com

2 Men Are Questioned in Woman’s Disappearance
12/6
A 25-year-old woman was reported missing early Wednesday after leaving a popular Manhattan nightclub, and investigators suspected she was the victim of foul play, the police said Friday.

The woman, Laura Garza, was last seen leaving Marquee, a club at 289 10th Avenue that has a reputation for attracting celebrities and crowds. Ms. Garza, who lives in Brooklyn, left the club at 4 a.m. on Wednesday and was reported missing a short time later, the police said.

On Friday night, the police were questioning two people they suspected were involved in Ms. Garza’s disappearance, said Paul J. Browne, the chief police spokesman.

“We suspect foul play and are concerned for her safety,” he said. “Detectives identified two men who were seen leaving the club with her and determined that both of them reside outside the city in upstate New York.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/nyregion/06missing.html?ref=nyregion

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12062008/news/regionalnews/club_gal_missing_142953.htm
(http://www.nypost.com/seven/12062008/photos/suspect.jpg)

'BLOODY SUV' IN CLUB-GAL HUNT
PERV'S CALL TO PAL EYED IN LAURA GARZA 'MURDER'

By LARRY CELONA, MATTHEW NESTEL and ADAM NICHOLS
 Suspect Michael Mele

Last updated: 7:23 pm
December 6, 2008
Posted: 7:18 pm
December 6, 2008

Cops hunting a woman who disappeared from a Manhattan nightclub towed a bloodstained SUV from their prime suspect's upstate family home today - hours after the sexual deviant called a pal begging him not to speak to police, sources said.

Investigators searched lakes and a wooded area near Michael Mele's family's Middletown house for Laura Garza, 25, whose case is being treated as a homicide.

The black Lexus was pulled from the home's driveway at around 3 a.m. after the convicted sex offender turned himself into police in Orange County on an unrelated charge.

Surveillance video showed he was one of two men who left Chelsea's Marquee nightclub with Garza at 4 a.m. Wednesday morning. She has not been seen since.

Cops said Mele, 23, drove Garza and his pal upstate, dropping off the friend on the way.

"The friend said they had been drinking, but Garza was fine when he left," a police source said.

"He said Mele and Garza had been making out in the club. Mele had said to his friend that he wanted to have sex with her, and they all left the club.

"On Friday, Mele called the other guy and said if the cops call, don't say anything," the source said.

Another police source said bloodstains were found in the SUV.

Cops also said they found a piece of carpet mysteriously cut out in an apartment Mele maintains near the family home. More blood was allegedly found in the house.

Neighbors said landscapers working on the property discovered a knife, which they turned over to police.

Mele has several arrests, most recently in Rockland County for performing a lewd act in front of shoppers on four different occasions at the Palisades Mall. He was placed on the sex-offenders list.

He turned himself in to Newburgh police Friday night, accompanied by his lawyer, and was held "with respect to a minor, unrelated offense in New York City." Sources said the warrant is believed to be for an outstanding traffic violation.

He was transferred to Brooklyn today. Newburgh police said "contrary to earlier reports, Mele was not spoken to at any length regarding the missing woman."

Mele, who owns a Quiznos franchise in Middletown, is known to be wealthy.

"He thought he was a big jock," a man who went to high school with him said today. "He walked around like he was above everybody else."

Garza, a Mexican native who moved to New York six months ago from Mission, Texas, went to the club with a friend, police said. She was seen on the club's surveillance cameras dancing with Mele, and leaving with him and his friend.

Neighbors in the Bay Ridge apartment she shared with her cousin today described her as perhaps too friendly.

"She seemed like a really sweet Southern girl who just threw herself out there," said Jessica Canal. "She was a little naive."

Additional reporting by Lorena Mongelli, CJ Sullivan and Phil Messing

larry.celona@nypost.com

There is a park very close to the club and the Hudson River isn't far away either.

(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o100/klaasen3/Sub5/cheslea.jpg)

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/12/06/2008-12-06_massive_hunt_in_disappearance_of_laura_g.html

(http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/12/07/pf_hunt.jpg)

Massive hunt in disappearance of Laura Garza; Brooklyn beauty vanished from MarqueeBY JOE GOULD and LARRY MCSHANE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Saturday, December 6th 2008, 7:38 PM

 
A massive hunt is underway in the disappearance of Laura Garza, 25. Police are searching near the apartment of registered sex offender Michael Mele, with whom she was last seen.

State police on Saturday scoured the upstate home of a registered sex offender suspected in the disappearance of a gorgeous young Brooklyn woman.

Investigators spent hours poring through Michael Mele's Wallkill, N.Y. condo and the surrounding property, donning full-body suits and sending a helicopter over the adjoining woods in a hunt for the victim.

"There are a lot of leads to run down," said Terrence Mullen, senior state police investigator. "It's an ongoing investigation."

Mele, 23, was in custody Saturday on a probation violation for drinking in the Manhattan nightclub where he met Laura Garza, 25, who arrived in New York from a south Texas town just five months ago.

State police had yet to interview Mele.

Garza, a curly-haired beauty who works at a Manhattan shoe store, was last seen leaving the Marquee on Tenth Ave. with Mele about 4 a.m. Wednesday.

The ritzy club's video cameras captured Garza dancing and chatting with Mele for more than 45 minutes before she vanished.

Police described Garza as 5-feet-2 and 120 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes.

Sex-con suspect Michael Mele has bites and scratches; machete, woman's shoe pulled from trash

BY JOE GOULD, JOHN LAUINGER, ALISON GENDAR and LARRY McSHANE
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Sunday, December 7th 2008, 3:53 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/12/06/2008-12-06_sexcon_suspect_michael_mele_has_bites_an.html

(http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/12/07/amd_mele-investigators.jpg)(http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/12/07/amd_police-mullen.jpg)(http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/12/07/amd_mele-investigators2.jpg)

State Police found a machete and a woman's shoe Saturday as they scoured the upstate home of a registered sex offender suspected in the disappearance - and murder - of a naive New York newcomer.

Police sources revealed that Michael Mele had bite marks on his hands and scratch marks on his neck - and thoroughly cleaned his Wallkill apartment after the young beauty he allegedly brought home from a Manhattan nightclub went missing.

Besides scrubbing his condo with bleach, Mele, 23, cut out patches of hallway carpeting, vacuumed obsessively and frantically tossed pieces of evidence in Dumpsters, sources said. "He had three days to clean up his apartment," a police source said.

Neighbors recounted Mele's erratic behavior following his night with Laura Garza, 25.

Condo superintendent Ron Ciofalo said two days earlier he watched Mele - in jeans and a leather jacket - root through the Dumpster where the shoe was found yesterday. "He was acting weird Thursday night when he went to the Dumpster," recalled Ciofalo, 36. "He said he was looking for a credit card bill. ... Something's fishy."

A blue piece of cloth resembling women's undergarments was also found near shrubbery a couple of doors down from Mele's condo.

Mele was in custody Saturday in the Rockland County jail on a probation violation for drinking alcohol at the trendy Marquee club in Chelsea where he met Garza, a curly-haired beauty who came to New York from a south Texas town just five months ago. Police sources said Mele - the wealthy son of retired MTA Assistant Deputy Police Chief William Mele - declined to speak with investigators.

Garza was last seen leaving the club with Mele and a friend about 4 a.m. Wednesday.

Mele spoke with his pal several times after Garza vanished and would only say he was in trouble, sources said.

Investigators zeroed in on Mele after high-tech surveillance cameras at Marquee captured the pair dancing, flirting and talking for about 45 minutes, giving cops their first real clue to her whereabouts.

Mele, who detectives reached by cell phone after Garza was reported missing, initially denied leaving the club with her, sources said. After reviewing cell phone records, club surveillance video and statements from his pal, police believe Mele killed Garza inside his condo Wednesday morning, sources said.

Investigators spent hours poring through Mele's home and the surrounding property Saturday, donning full-body suits and sending a helicopter over the adjoining woods in a hunt for the victim.

Cops plan to drain or send divers to comb the drainage pond in Mele's backyard to search for the body, sources said.

State police impounded the car Mele was driving on the night of Garza's disappearance. Sources said the Infiniti SUV, found parked at his father's Newburgh home, had been thoroughly cleaned.

The building super said Mele - who owns a Quiznos franchise near his home - claimed that he needed to cut up the carpeting after accidentally kicking over a bottle of bleach. Mele's girlfriend came to his apartment around 5 p.m. Wednesday and, buying the story, helped Mele remove the carpet from the apartment, unaware it might contain evidence linking her boyfriend to murder, sources said.

The rug covered a 12-foot-long hallway leading to the back bedroom. "Enough to wrap a body in," a police source said.

Mele's girlfriend later told state cops where they put the carpet section and led them to the vacuum they tossed beside a Dumpster near his restaurant.

Mele has a bizarre and perverse criminal past. He was arrested in April 2007 for masturbating on women in the parking lot at the suburban Palisades Center Mall, said Clarkstown police Detective William Fritz.

Neighbors described Mele as volatile and flashy, often decked out in expensive clothes and driving a sports car. He paid cash for everything and convinced condo management not to run a background check before moving in, said Ciofalo.

Investigators tried to talk to Mele's parents. His mother, looking worn and showing signs of crying, said, "I hope you find her," before her husband motioned for her to be quiet, a source said.

Garza, a recent arrival in Brooklyn from McAllen, Tex., moved into her cousin's fifth-floor Bay Ridge apartment several months ago. Her neighbors recalled an outgoing and engaging woman with a pet poodle and a warm smile.

Weeping friends from her hometown said she was not the type to pick up a date in a bar. "It's not like her to do anything stupid like this, to leave with a guy from a club," said Julie Cortez, 24. "She's our girl. She's a sweet girl."

agendar@nydailynews.com

With Rich Schapiro

Once a friggin sex offender ... always a dirt bag friggin sex offender.

No kidding. And apparently he was a ticking time bomb that exploded on the night he met this poor girl.
It sounds like his Dad knows he did it....

Yes it does sound like his father knows he did it.

CLUB GIRL'S 'LAST' RIDE
BLOODY SUV BARED IN HUNT FOR VANISH CLUES

By MATTHEW NESTEL, JOSEPH MOLLICA and CARY CARDWELL

Last updated: 4:12 am
December 8, 2008
Posted: 2:21 am
December 8, 2008

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12082008/news/regionalnews/club_girls_last_ride_143206.htm

Investigators seeking to link a hotshot ladies' man with the disappearance of a Brooklyn beauty appealed to the public yesterday, releasing photos of the bloodstained SUV in which she might have taken her last ride.

Cops want to hear from anyone who saw Michael Mele's 2005 Infiniti FX35 - which had temporary plates - any time after early Wednesday morning, when he left the Chelsea club Marquee with 25-year-old Laura Garza and a male pal.

Investigators scoured Mele's apartment complex in upstate Middletown for the second straight day, draining a septic tank and sending dogs into the nearby woods.

Garza's distraught family in Texas tried to stay hopeful.

"We have lots of faith that she will be found," said her tearful brother, Ivan Garza, 32, a tour-bus driver from Monterrey, Mexico, where images of drug-related gang violence often dominate the news.

"We would see that on TV, and I never thought it could happen to our family."

Police spent more than 2½ hours at Garza's apartment last night, and walked out with a plastic bag of her belongings and several files.

Ivan Garza said his sister would never take off without telling anyone.

"She's a very responsible person," he said. "She was not a drinker. She'd go out with friends, but they went out together and they left and came home together."

The missing woman's mother, Elizabeth, has barely eaten or slept since learning that her daughter vanished four days ago and didn't show up to meet her roommate for the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting.

"This is her baby," said a cousin, Isela Villalobos. "She's thinking, 'Where's my daughter? Is she hurting?' "

Villalobos added that Garza knew better than to leave a club with a stranger - and was puzzled when shown photos of Mele, because, she said, light-skinned men were never Garza's type.

"She doesn't like white guys," Villalobos said. "She likes dark-skinned guys."

Cops said yesterday they want to hear from any women who might have had unpleasant run-ins with Mele.

"Mele frequents locations in and around New York City and the tristate area, and it is believed that some of the women he has approached have not come forward to police at this time," said State Police Lt. Pierce Gallagher.

The suspect, who owns a Quiznos sandwich shop upstate, is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail for violating the terms of his probation, stemming from a 2007 forcible-touching incident.

Friends and associates described Mele as a successful young man who loves flashy cars and beautiful women, and they expressed shock that he could be linked to Garza's disappearance.

I think this girl was drugged.

Missing woman's family pleads for her safety as cops zero in on pervBY MIKE JACCARINO in McAllen, Tex., JOE GOULD in Wallkill, N.Y., and JONATHAN LEMIRE in New York
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Monday, December 8th 2008, 4:00 AM

The devastated family of a missing 25-year-old Brooklyn woman picked up at a glitzy club by a registered sex offender - who cops suspect killed her - begged Sunday for the young beauty's safe return.

"Please return my sister," cried Ivan Garza, the heartsick brother of Laura Garza, outside the family's Texas home.

"I only need my sister here," he said. "That's it."

An aspiring dancer who moved to New York five months ago, Laura Garza called her mother in McAllen, Tex., hours before she had her fateful encounter with suspect Michael Mele, her brother told the Daily News.

She had finished her shift as a clerk at Bakers shoe store on Fifth Ave. near the Empire State Building and, excited that she did not have to work the next day, was planning to go out with co-workers.

"She said, 'Mom, I have to run. Tomorrow, I'm not working,'" said Ivan Garza.

Inside the one-story ranch-style home, 5 miles from the Mexican border, Garza's mother was inconsolable.

"[My mother] is in bad shape. She's taking medicine and is in bed," said Ivan Garza. "My sister never hurt anyone. She's a beautiful person."

Investigators believe that Laura Garza met Mele, 23, at the swanky Marquee club in Chelsea after midnight on Wednesday.

Surveillance cameras at the celeb-friendly hot spot captured Garza flashing her stunning smile at Mele as the pair flirted and danced for about 45 minutes.

The two left together with one of Mele's friends at 4 a.m.

Investigators suspect that Mele took Garza back to his condo in upstate Wallkill and killed her. Her body has not been found.

Garza's brother insisted that his sister must have been taken from the club by force, saying she was not someone who would leave with a stranger.

"My sister was a good girl. ... She would never have done something like this," said a choked-up Ivan Garza.

"We just want this to end," he said. "Come home safe."

McAllen, a city of about 130,000 people, never seemed big enough for Laura Garza, who had long spoken of being attracted to New York's bright lights, her friends said.

"She wanted to live in a big city. ... She was excited to leave [Texas]," said Eddie Garza (no relation to the family), store manager at the Charlotte Russe clothing store, where Laura once worked.

"It's New York - who wouldn't want to live in New York?" he said. "She wanted to study and be a professional dancer."

"It's very sad," he said.

State police detectives combed Mele's posh condo Sunday, dusting for fingerprints on his balcony and draining the pond and septic tank at the Regency Club apartment complex.

Mele - who was arrested for lewd behavior in 2007 - remained in custody Sunday at a Rockland County jail on a probation violation for drinking alcohol at the Manhattan club.

Police sources said Mele, who had bite marks on his hands and scratch marks on his neck, has refused to be interviewed by investigators. His lawyer, Craig Brown, declined comment.

Last April, Mele was arrested for masturbating on women at the suburban Palisades Center Mall and is now registered as a Level 1 sex offender.

Investigators suspect he has harassed other women who have not reported the crimes, and they urged them to come forward. Mele has not been charged in Garza's disappearance.

Investigators released photos of the suspect's 2005 Infiniti SUV Sunday, hoping someone would remember seeing it and lead cops to Garza's corpse.

The car, which had been thoroughly cleaned, was seized by cops at the Newburgh home of the suspect's dad, William Mele, a retired MTA assistant deputy police chief.

Investigators believe the younger Mele cut out patches of hallway carpeting, vacuumed thoroughly and frantically tossed away pieces of evidence, including a woman's shoe, in several Dumpsters, one of which sits at the Quiznos franchise he owns near his home.

The missing pieces of rug covered a 12-foot-long hallway leading to a back bedroom and were big "enough to wrap a body in," a police source said.

Unaware of Mele's rendezvous with Garza, the suspect's girlfriend helped him dispose of the carpet, sources said.

One of Mele's neighbors, who said young women were a common sight at the condo, panicked when she learned that Mele was a registered sex offender.

"Are you serious?" screamed a woman who gave her name only as Carol. "I have a freakin' 14-year-old daughter. Now I'm really freaking out."

jlemire@nydailynews.com

With Nicole Bode, Edgar Sandoval, Erica Pearson and Matt Townsend

N.J. warrant issued for suspect in N.Y. disappearance  
 
 
 

(12/09/08) PARAMUS - Authorities in Paramus have issued a felony warrant for a sex offender who is also a suspect in the disappearance of a New York City woman.

Twenty-five-year-old Laura Garza left a Manhattan nightclub last week with 23-year-old Michael Mele of Wallkill, New York, and hasn't been seen since.

Mele's lawyer, Craig Brown, has declined to comment on his client's guilt or innocence since Mele has not been charged in the case.

In New Jersey, Mele is accused of lewdness in a public place and exposure to a child under 13 years of age. Police say he masturbated in a Paramus-area mall.

Rockland County, N.Y. Sheriff's Detective Lt. William Barbera says Mele is wanted in Paramus on "a similar type charge" to previous offenses.

Sgt. Harry Baumann of the Clarkstown, N.Y. police says Mele's earlier convictions involve several episodes of public lewdness, including masturbating near women at a shopping mall.

This story was written using Associated Press wire reports.

 
http://www.news12.com/NJ/topstories/article?id=222010#"

 

Women provide police information on suspect in case of missing 25-year-old

by The Associated Press Tuesday December 09, 2008, 12:23 AM
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- A number of women came forward Monday with information about a sex offender who left a nightclub with a woman who vanished shortly afterward, state police said as they searched woods and trash bins near the man's home.

The missing woman, 25-year-old Laura Garza, was a newly transplanted New Yorker who had left a Texas border town with dreams of becoming a dancer. The suspect, 23-year-old Michael Mele, had a record of sex crimes in the northern suburbs.

By Monday evening, Mele was facing apparently unrelated charges. Authorities in Paramus, N.J., issued a warrant accusing him of lewdness in a public place and exposure to a child under 13 years of age, Rockland County sheriff's Detective Lt. William Barbera told reporters, calling the new case "similar" to his previous offenses. Sgt. Harry Baumann of the Clarkstown police said Mele's earlier convictions involved several episodes of public lewdness, including masturbating near women at a shopping mall.

A message left with the Paramus police chief seeking further details wasn't immediately returned. A message left for Mele's lawyer about the New Jersey charges wasn't immediately returned.

The two met last week at the Marquee nightclub in Manhattan. They left together early Wednesday and were last seen a couple of hours later in his fancy SUV, 70 miles north of Manhattan and not far from his Wallkill apartment.

Garza hasn't been seen since.

On Monday, state police were still searching Mele's apartment and his Infiniti, as well as nearby fields, woods, trash bins and a septic system, but there was no sign of Garza, dead or alive, said state police Capt. Wayne Olson.

"We need to find this young woman," Olson said. "We haven't determined that this is a homicide, but certainly we strongly suspect she is a victim of foul play."


 
COMMENTS (3)Post a comment
Posted by nosofte on 12/09/08 at 7:51AM
I hope evidence is found to implicate this bastard get him off the streets, and put him away for life!

Posted by monmouthco1 on 12/09/08 at 8:37AM
Exposing himself to young girls and jaying off in front of women at the mall? Animals like this should be culled.

Posted by hpd3636 on 12/09/08 at 8:41AM
"A message left with the Paramus police chief seeking further details wasn't immediately returned. A message left for Mele's lawyer about the New Jersey charges wasn't immediately returned."

not immediately returned implys that they were eventualy returned so, what did they say?



http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/12/women_provide_police_informati.html

Who can a Woman Trust: The Disappearance of Laura Garza
News Type: Event — Sun Dec 7, 2008 9:37 PM EST
police, murder, missing, night-club, laura-garza, michael-mele, new-york-city-club
Clint Van Zandt

Laura Garza

Michael Mele

Although at 25 years of age Laura Garza was no stranger to life, she was new to New York City, a place that appeared to hold out the promise of fun and adventure for the young woman who moved to the Big Apple from McAllen, Texas just five months ago. A local New York neighbor, when asked about the missing woman, indicated she just didn’t seem to have her guard up like most New Yorkers do, suggesting she might have been too trusting and too naïve for what one club goer called "the predatory spirit found in New York City night clubs." Letting your guard down can prove to be fatal, and that is what police fear for the beautiful woman that left an upscale Manhattan club, one usually populated by the rich, the famous, and the want-to-be’s, at 4 AM this past Wednesday with two men, really strangers she had just met. (See The Today Show for 12/8/08.)

Fatal Mistakes

Garza may have made a number of fatal mistakes, including one made by many women who have become victims of sexual predators in similar situations. Garza came to the bar with a friend, but she left her friend to be with a man she had just met, someone she otherwise knew nothing about. As Tom Cruise's character learned in the movie "Top Gun," you never leave your wingman, the person who would have your best interest at heart, a lesson also learned by 18-year-old Natalee Holloway in Aruba and Imette St. Guillen, the 24-year-old criminal justice graduate student who in early 2006, made a fatal error in judgment; she too trusted the wrong man.

Physical evidence and the man behind the Mask

The known physical evidence appears to implicate the man Garza left the bar with, 23-year-old Michael Mele, the son of a former deputy chief of police and a registered sex offender, in her disappearance and suspected violent death. Garza had no way of knowing that Mele had recently been convicted of at least four (known) sex offenses and assaults on women in open shopping mall parking lots. She didn’t know that Mele allegedly ran up to his selected female victims, all which police indicated had something in common, suggesting Mele was a preferential predator, i.e., he knew the type of victims he wanted and he went after them. She didn’t know he had terrorized his victims, masturbating in front of them, leaving his semen on the clothing of the frightened women, women that will never get out of their car again without looking around in fear of Mele. And Garza likely never suspected that the man she left the bar with that early morning had plead down his sex offenses charges to forcible touching and endangering the welfare of a child (one of his victims was a 16-year-old girl) for which this son of a cop got six years probation, but not one second in prison. Where was the one strike law when we needed it for this offender that displayed such sexually aggressive behavior toward his victims, some of which may have yet to be identified?

Statements from others in the bar that night, to include Mele’s friend, and review of cellular telephone records and video tapes from the bar show Mele dancing and embracing Garza and then show her leaving the bar with him, something he initially denied to police. Evidence confirms that she left with Mele at 4 AM and got into a car with him and his friend, the latter of whom would eventually leave the two to go to Mele’s apartment alone. Mele would soon tell his friend that he was in trouble and that his friend should not talk to police, obviously not the actions of an innocent man.

When Garza was reported as missing, the police quickly went looking for Mele. When they found him he had scratches on his neck, bite marks on his hands, and had allegedly scrubbed his car and apartment with bleach, this with the assistance of his unknowing girlfriend. He also cut out a large piece of his carpet, indicating that he had accidentally spilled bleach on it, a piece large enough to wrap around the body of a 5’2”, 120 lb. woman like Garza. Witnesses indicate Mele frantically cleaned and vacuumed his car and apartment the morning of Garza’s disappearance, eventually disposing of the vacuum cleaner, one that could contain physical evidence related to the missing woman.

In their search for Garza, police have found a machete, a woman’s shoe and other items of clothing that could be related to the victim, some of which were recovered from a nearby dumpster he was seen going through. Evidence of blood was found in Mele’s SUV, one he had parked at his parent’s home, and blood was also found by police in his apartment. DNA should quickly tell police if the blood and other physical evidence confirm what investigators believe, that Mele took Garza to his apartment where he may have assaulted and murdered her, then took her remains to a yet to be discovered body disposal site. Should this be the case, investigators will attempt to determine where he car was the morning of Garza's disappearance and where a man in panic would go to dispose of a body. Divers are in the pond behind his apartment in case he chose a close by site. Although now in police custody for violation of his probation, he is represented by counsel and is not discussing his role in the disappearance and possible death of Garza. I have no doubt that other young girls and women, after seeing Mele's photo and reading about his actions, will come forward to identify him as their previously unidentified assailant. Too late, I fear, for Laura Garza.

Others who trusted too Much

Natalee Holloway is believed to have been the victim of one or more of the three men she left an Aruban bar with the last night she was seen on this earth. Imette St. Guillen told her wingman that she wanted to stay at the bar until its 4 AM closing time. Her nude body was found over 16 hours later, raped, strangled, a sock stuffed in her mouth, her windpipe crushed and her broken form concealed in a cheap bedspread, her emotionless face wrapped with clear packing tape, her hair cut and other injuries just too terrible to discuss. Darryl Littlejohn, a bouncer at the Soho bar she had left, someone who convinced St. Guillen that he was a federal agent, was seen helping the victim into his van after she left the bar and has been charged with her brutal murder.

Take time out to check him Out

New York City has been the site of almost 480 murders this year, a pace that could surpass last year’s total number of 496 murders, noting that there is a homicide somewhere in the United States every 31 minutes. But what could Garza have done not to have become the suspected victim of a sexual predator, someone who apparently changed his MO from targeting outdoor victims to going after indoor victims. Garza, like other women in a similar situation, could have given herself 12-24 hours before she accompanied someone she had just met, no matter how charming and handsome the potential suitor/predator might be. Had she searched Mele’s name on the Internet, she would have found a news blurb dated April 4, 2008, indicating that her new friend, Michael Mele, age 22, had been added to the New York State Sex Offender Registry following a sex offense conviction and that he was on six years probation.

The opinion of your friends and family are equally important as are the personal vibes you get from the new person in your life. A reader of this column made a good observation that it is also important to at least make the new person your facebook and myspace friend, this in order to confirm that they are who they say they are, and that a group of people know them. This would also provide you a good look at their online itneractions and groups they join, so if it feels wrong then you can just revert to only online friends or deleting/blocking them if their profiles are offensive. The reader continued that if the guy looks too good, and he's throwing around too much money, you should be careful of your interactions with him. Remember that a predator will attempt to identify a likely victim by isolating her from her friends and encouraging her to go beyond the limits she's sat for herself, this like a lion stalking a herd of gazelles, looking for the one he can cut from the herd and attack. (Last, I want to be careful here. This is not "blame the victim," as Laura is surely not responsible for what terrible act may have befallen her. All I am saying is what should a person in her position should consider as she make such a decision.)

Lies and Murder

Too many people tell too many lies to too many other people. If over 50% of people lie on resumes, what do they say in a bar late at night? Although some married men and women do kill their spouses, think of Scott Peterson or the allegations concerning Drew Peterson or the pastor's wife who shotgunned her allegedly abusive husband to death. We also know that thousands of people hook up for one or two night stands or begin dating without murder as a consequence, but between STD’s and sexual predators, it’s worth the few extra hours to make a preliminary check on the person with whom you are considering sharing yourself. While those with STD’s may not be the subject of a news media article, criminals usually are. In Garza’s case, she may simply have accepted a ride home and found herself in a situation from which she could not escape, and the true personality of her new friend, like that of Jekyll and Hyde, then revealed its hidden self. Meanwhile her friends, family and investigators continue to await DNA results and the decision made in a moment late at night on the part of two people, the suspected killer and his trusting victim, may have led to the death of yet another person with so much potential, a life lost due to a little too much trust in one’s fellow man.

It was the philosopher and poet George Santayana who said "Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it," hence his "Aphorism on Repetitive Consequences." How do you explain a man who has such a sense of personal entitlement that he uses his charm to endear himself to a woman and then demands physical access to her. If rebuffed, he sees this as such an overwhelming narcissistic attack that he vents his anger and rage on his now victim in an attempt to force compliance to his will or as a means to punish "the offender" for her lack of compliance. Once he has vented, he finally see the results of his actions, and then, like millions in history before him, attempts to cover up his evil deed while denying any wrongdoing on his part, a reaction that dates back to the time of Cain and Abel. When will we ever learn?

http://clintvanzandt.newsvine.com/_news/2008/12/07/2189163-who-can-a-woman-trust-the-disappearance-of-laura-garza

My Lord, I think I just heard that this scumbag had only been charged with misdemeanors previously.  What!  Someone runs up in a mall or mall parking lot and ejaculates on me and that is not a freaking felony?  It is sure as heck an assault!

There should be a limit, a very low limit, of these types of sexual crimes and then chemical castration.  Or if someone is arrested for a lessor sexual charge and then escalates the next time - automatic castration.  Damn we can't keep them in prison, they can't be treated and the law let's them loose on the world, over and over.

The New York Post
 
December 9, 2008 Tuesday 
 
SIB'S PSYCHIC SEARCHING - SEER SAYS CLUB GIRL STILL ALIVE
 
A brother of the curly-haired beauty who disappeared after leaving a Chelsea club with an upstate sex fiend spent yesterday searching for her along the Hudson River on the advice of a psychic, relatives said.

Nicholas Garza traveled to New York from Texas after one of several "seers" his family consulted claimed that Laura Garza, 25, was "still alive but very near death, with pain in her chest. She was lying under a bridge where water feeds into the ocean," according to her other brother, Ivan.

"I didn't want her to go there because it's such a big city," said Laura's mother, Elizabeth Esquivel.

"She would tell me, 'Mommy I love the cities, and I want to learn and experience more.' "

She also doesn't believe her daughter left the club with two men willingly because "she is not like that, they had to have put something in her drink."

The heartbreaking hunt for the missing girl was under way as it was learned yesterday that the prime suspect in Laura's disappearance - Michael Mele - is behind bars on a probation violation, and will stay there thanks to a fresh arrest warrant for public lewdness.

Mele, 23, is suspected in Garza's disappearance because he drove her upstate from the Chelsea hotspot Marquee early last Wednesday, lied to cops about it, and reportedly tore up his carpet and frantically cleaned his home in a possible bid to destroy evidence, authorities said.

The lewdness charge stems from Mele's alleged masturbating in the presence of a child at the Paramus Park Mall in 2005, said Paramus Police Chief Richard Cary. DNA, obtained for a probation violation related to a forcible-touching charge last year at the Palisades Mall, tied him to the crime, Cary said.

Ryan Perez, a 20-year-old whom Mele hired three years ago to work in an upstate Quiznos sandwich shop Mele owns, described the suspect as a stingy, lecherous hothead who routinely hit on comely female customers and occasionally threw temper tantrums.

"This guy liked to pick up girls at work," Perez said of Mele. "He asked if they went to college - that was his cue to go talk to them. He's pretty slick."

Perez said when he began dating a co-worker who Mele was interested in, his boss became jealous and surly, and later fired the woman.

Perez, who himself later was fired, said Mele had a fierce temper, recalling a time Perez got to work late, infuriating Mele. "He punched the wall three times," Perez said. "He said, 'see those holes over there? I made those.' " 
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:896057639&start=2

SUSPECT'S RAGE IN MISSING CLUB GIRL CASE

By PERRY CHIARAMONTE and KELLY MAGEE
Suspect Michael MeleLast updated: 8:55 pm
December 10, 2008
Posted: 8:55 pm
December 10, 2008

(http://www.nypost.com/seven/12102008/photos/mele.jpg)

The sexual predator being eyed in the disappearance of a club-going beauty screamed at his employee for telling cops where he lived and ordered her to keep her mouth shut, she said today

"I can't believe you told them where I live!" Michael Mele shouted over the phone at Kim Rosario, the manager of his Quiznos franchise, hours after investigators came into the shop.

The cops showed up at the Middletown eatery Friday afternoon, less than two days after Laura Garza was last seen with Mele.

"I called him and he wouldn't talk to them. He told me not to tell them that he moved. I told him that I wasn't going to lie to the police," Rosario, 21, told The Post. "The cops grabbed the phone from me and told Mike that he had to come down."

A few hours later, Mele, 23, turned himself in. He has refused to answer any questions, and is being held on a probation violation from an earlier sex offense.

A friend of Garza's who had gone to the club that night said when she left, she saw Mele chatting up her friend.

Additional reporting by Mary Nichols in McAllen, Texas

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12102008/news/regionalnews/suspects_rage_in_missing_club_girl_case_143562.htm

sad...I hope they find her body so the family has closure :(

San Antonio Express-News
 
December 11, 2008 Thursday
 
Missing woman evidence mounts

BROWNSVILLE - A sex offender who is the prime suspect in last week's disappearance of a McAllen woman in New York City called a man who left a Manhattan nightclub with them saying the woman was missing and asking if police had called.

But Michael Mele's call to the police informant came eight hours before 25-year-old Laura Garza was actually reported missing, court documents show.

Police continue to gather background on Mele, a middle-class sub shop owner from upstate New York known for chasing women and driving fancy cars. As of Wednesday, he had not been charged in Garza's disappearance and his attorneys did not return a call seeking comment.

The informant went to Club Marquee with Mele on Dec. 2 and left the city with Mele and Garza at 4 a.m. on Dec. 3.

He rode in the back seat of Mele's Infiniti sport utility vehicle during the drive north to Orange County, N.Y. When he was dropped off, he saw Garza and Mele kissing and laughing.

Mele called him about 1 p.m. on Dec. 4 with the odd query about whether police had called.

"The informant says, in substance, no, why, to which Mr. Mele responds, in substance, that girl was reported missing," documents say. "Mr. Mele then stated that he had to go, and hangs up."

When the informant called Mele back, Mele said, "I can't talk to you any more about this, there are three lawyers involved, if anyone comes to talk to you about this, just tell them what you know."

Mele told the informant he had nothing to worry about. "You didn't do anything," he said.

Garza left McAllen in July in hopes of becoming a dancer in New York City and had been working at a Fifth Avenue shoe store.

Her family told detectives she usually called daily but had not called since the night she went to the Marquee. Her last cell phone call was made at 1:13 a.m. on Dec. 3.

Surveillance tapes showed she left the club with Mele.

Computer records told police Mele had a record - five misdemeanor convictions for sex crimes - and was a registered sex offender who was on probation.

Police searched Mele's apartment and found that portions of carpet had been cut away. They've also searched dumpsters, sewers and roadsides. A judge ordered photos be taken of Mele unclothed after detectives noticed an apparent bite mark on his finger and scratches on his shoulders and neck.

"We have people out running leads, we're conducting interviews, doing more background work - trying to establish a timeline of where he might have been during the one- or two-day time period in question," state police Capt. Wayne Olson said.

Olson said other women had called to report troubling encounters with Mele and were being interviewed to help police learn more about his personality and habits.

Mele runs a Quiznos sandwich shop, which Olson said had closed since Mele turned himself in, and he lived in a $1,300-a-month apartment. His father is a retired deputy chief of the Metropolitan Transit Authority police.

His SUV, a recent purchase, was in police custody.

Mele turned himself in Dec. 5 for violating probation. He remained jailed on $300,000 bond and has warrants out for him in a neighboring county for forcible touching and public lewdness. 
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:897206793&start=1

Search for missing NYC woman moves upstate
 
Associated Press - December 11, 2008 8:35 PM ET

BLOOMINGBURG, N.Y. (AP) - The search for a missing New York City woman who was last seen with a convicted sex offender has shifted to an upstate New York village.

Teams searched areas around the Sullivan County village of Bloomingburg on Thursday. State police had earlier searched near convicted sex offender Michael Mele's Wallkill apartment in Orange County.

Authorities are concerned that snow expected Friday morning could cover up any potential physical evidence.

Mele is a "person of interest" in the disappearance of Laura Garza. The 25-year-old woman was last seen with Mele leaving a Manhattan club early Dec. 3. She was reported missing on Dec. 4.

Mele has not been charged in GarzaÂ’s disappearance. He is being held at the Orange County Jail on probation violations.
http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=9508343

Information from: The Times Herald-Record, http://www.th-record.com

Laura Garza's brothers join search for her missing body
BY MIKE JACCARINO and TRACY CONNOR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Saturday, December 13th 2008, 4:00 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/12/13/2008-12-13_laura_garzas_brothers_join_search_for_he.html

(http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/12/13/alg_garza-family.jpg)
Ivan Garza (l.), his wife, Laura, and brother Nicholas help search for their missing sister.

The brothers of missing Brooklyn woman Laura Garza combed through brush in upstate New York Friday and said they had not given up hope of finding her alive.

"We feel at the bottom of our hearts she's good and she's waiting for us," Nicholas Garza said. "We're coming, we're coming for her."

The Garzas joined police and fire search teams canvassing a wooded area in Bloomingburg, about 20 miles from suspect Michael Mele's home.

Other searchers were busy in Wallkill, where Mele, 23, has a condo, and a police helicopter flew over the Middletown Quiznos shop he owns.

Mele, a serial sex offender, has been named a person of interest in the disappearance of Garza, 25, who has not been seen since she left the Manhattan club Marquee with him on Dec. 3.

He has not cooperated with police searching for the Texas transplant, and her brothers urged him to start talking.

"Tell us where you dropped her," Nicholas Garza said. "Speak up!"

The Garzas enlisted some volunteers to help them with the search, though state police said the extra help wasn't necessary and could contaminate a crime scene.

Maria Ricon, 36, who made the trip from the Bronx, said Garza's plight struck a chord with her. "It could happen to anyone," she said. "I feel their pain and wanted to help."

tconnor@nydailynews.com

'MISSING GIRL' SUSPECT A 'BRAT'
HISTORY AS HS WEIRDO

By ANGELA MONTEFINISE, MATTHEW NESTEL and BRAD HAMILTON
Last updated: 7:05 pm
December 13, 2008
Posted: 7:01 pm
December 13, 2008

(http://www.nypost.com/seven/12132008/photos/mele.jpg)

The deviant past of the ex-con suspected in the disappearance of a Manhattan clubgoer dates to his high-school days - when he would make creepy prank phone calls to classmates, former friends told The Post.

Registered sex offender Michael Mele, 23, described by his old classmates as a "womanizer" and a "spoiled brat," remains the prime suspect in the disappearance of Laura Garza, a Texas transplant living in Brooklyn.

She was last seen kissing Mele, of upstate Middletown, at Chelsea hot spot Marquee on Dec. 3.

As the search for Garza continued upstate today, investigators reported finding a section of carpeting and "several other items." They refused to elaborate.

Meanwhile, several former friends said that during his junior year, Mele made a series of prank calls to them in which he would "huff and puff" and make disturbing remarks.

Cops told the victims that they had traced the calls to Mele's phone, but that he told them it had been stolen or lost, the friends said.

Police were unable to confirm the phone calls for The Post. His attorney declined to comment.

When Mele was convicted last year of a series of lewd acts at a Rockland County mall, making him a Level One sex offender, friends said he had a story to explain that away, as well.

"He told us all it was a 17 year old girl, her father was a bigshot lawyer, it was a big misunderstanding," one said. "He said he was in a 21-and-over club and she shouldn't have been there. We all believed him. He said nothing about malls."

Lexi Lawson, a singer now rehearsing for the national tour of "Rent," said she was Mele's date to his junior prom.

"We thought there was this strange stream of bad luck around him. Now, looking back, it doesn't seem that way," she said

Lawson said Mele "never crossed the line" on their date.

Mele hung out with the popular crowd at Newburgh Free Academy HS, competing on the swim team before switching to the golf team senior year.

It was a big change from his days at North Junior High School, also in Newburgh, where his chubbiness landed him the nickname "manatee," friends said.

He had a parade of women because of his nice clothes and flirty personality in high school, but never a steady girlfriend.

"He was into one-night stands," one pal said, adding that his sister was once propositioned by Mele.

After she turned him down, "in front of her, he's talking on the phone to other girls . . . and asking them to come over," the friend said.

Mele, who has not been charged in Garza's disappearance, is being held at the Orange County jail on parole violations for his earlier series of lewd acts. He has also been linked to similar acts in New Jersey.

Additional reporting by Perry Chiaramonte

angela.montefinise@nypost.com

PERV'S PAL QUIZZED IN VANISHING
WOODS NEAR HOME COMBED FOR CLUBGOER
By MATTHEW NESTEL, PERRY CHIARAMONTE and ANGELA MONTEFINISE

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12142008/news/regionalnews/manhattan/pervs_pal_quizzed_in_vanishing_144069.htm

(http://www.nypost.com/seven/12142008/photos/005w.jpg)

Investigators searching for missing clubgoer Laura Garza have grilled the perverted prime suspect's girlfriend - and are combing the woods within 100 yards of her house for the body.

Lindsay Campbell, 19, has spoken with police "many times" since her boyfriend of three months, Michael Mele - a registered sex offender - became a focus in Garza's Dec. 3 disappearance, and Campbell has been "very beneficial to us," according to State Police Lt. Brian Shortall.

Campbell, flanked by her mother and her lawyer, were at a state police barracks in Middletown Wednesday - and the next day the search for Garza's body was expanded into woods near her Bloomingburg home.

About 40 investigators fanned out across a two-mile section and the search quickly paid off.

They found a piece of carpet and several other items near the shoulder along Route 17 in the vicinity of Bloomingburg, police said. Shortall wouldn't elaborate on what was found, but said, "We consider it significant."

The carpet swatch matched the one in Mele's Wallkill apartment, sources told Hudson Valley paper The Times Herald-Record.

The search was scheduled to continue at 8 a.m. today.

Campbell, a pretty college student, has refused to comment. Her lawyer, Benjamin Ostrer, could not be reached.

Her mother, Patricia Campbell, told The Post yesterday "it's true" that her daughter is cooperating with cops, and said Mele was good to the family. She declined further comment.

Shortall said Campbell was one of several people whose information led to the shifted search site.

"If he was with her a lot and knows the roads in the area, that's significant," he said.

He insisted Campbell "has not been identified as a suspect."

Campbell, a hostess at an Outback Steakhouse in Middletown, wasn't with Mele, 23, when he drove with a pal to Manhattan on Dec. 3 and hooked up with Garza, 25, at Chelsea hotspot Marquee.

Garza left with Mele in the early hours of Dec. 4. Shortall said Campbell "was with him for a significant period of time" later that day.

Mele has not been charged in Garza's disappearance. He's being held at Orange County jail on parole violations related to a series of lewd acts that involved groping women and public masturbation. His lawyer refused to comment.

Additional reporting by Brad Hamilton

matthew.nestel@nypost.com

Carpet May Be A Clue In Case Of Missing Texas Woman

Carpet found along a suburban highway may be linked to a convicted sex offender who was the last person seen with a missing Brooklyn woman who left her home in Texas to pursue her dreams in New York City, police said.

State Police Lt. Brian Shortall said investigators combing an area near Bloomingburg have found pieces of rug that may be from Michael Mele's apartment.

The carpeting was spotted near State Route 17, about 80 miles northwest of Manhattan.

The rug will be tested to determine whether it is linked to Mele, considered a "person of interest" in the disappearance of Laura Garza, 25, who left a Manhattan nightclub with Mele early on Dec. 3.

She was last seen with him hours later near his Wallkill apartment.

Garza moved to New York from McAllen.

Mele has not been charged in her disappearance, but he is being held on $100,000 bail on a probation violation charge.

http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/36133474.html

Police Expand Search for New York City Woman Last Seen With Sex Offender
Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Police further expanded their search for a New York woman last seen in the company of a convicted sex offender and began looking near his girlfriend's apartment.

State police SUVs Tuesday swarmed Bloomingburg, Middletown, Wallkill and Wawayanda, N.Y. — areas familiar to sex offender Michael Mele — in search of clues in Laura Garza’s disappearance, according to The Times Herald-Record.

The search led one investigator to wade into a creek after a civilian reported spotting a woman’s handbag there, the paper reported. But it, along with many other leads, was a false alarm.

Mele's girlfriend lives near Bloomingburg.

Investigators last week found segments of carpet by a Middletown-area highway that is being tested for a possible link to Mele.

Garza and Mele left a Manhattan nightclub early on Dec. 3 and were last seen hours later near his apartment in Wallkill.

Mele has been deemed a “person of interest” in the 25-year-old's disappearance and is being held on a probation violation charge, according to the Herald-Record.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,468869,00.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,472145,00.html

Divers Search Icy Lake for Body of Missing New York City Woman
Tuesday , December 23, 2008

 WALLKILL, N.Y. —

Police divers with chain saws have cut holes through the ice of an upstate lake and slipped in to search for the body of a missing Brooklyn woman.

They have found only a shotgun, which state police Lt. Brian Shortall says is not related to the case of Laura Garza. Garza has been missing since leaving a Manhattan club three weeks ago with Michael Mele, now the principal suspect in her disappearance.

The 23-year-old Mele, of Wallkill, is jailed on probation violations and has not been charged in the Garza case.

The dive into frigid Echo Lake, on the border of the towns of Wawayanada and Goshen, was not based on a specific tip but on the lake's proximity to Mele's home, officials said.

Mele's apartment was also searched Tuesday

Reading this was quite alarming, as there is an Echo Lake nearby here in NJ that we are familiar with.   Waywayanda is also a state park just south of Goshen, NY that is located in both NY & NJ.  It is a horrible time to be searching those types of areas, due to snow at this time of year.  It is encouraging, however, that they are widening the searches.

With snow gone, police press ground search for Garza

December 29, 2008
Special Report: The search for Laura Garza

MIDDLETOWN -- With the disappearance of about a foot of snow, state police have resumed their ground search for clues about missing Brooklynite Laura Garza.

About 30 state troopers, some members of the state police's Special Operations Response Team, and some canine handlers, searched the westbound lanes of I-84 near the Dolson Avenue entrance ramp just outside the City of Middletown.

The search teams were moving westbound and were scouring between exits 2 and 3 earlier in the day.

State police Lt. Pierce Gallagher said the renewed search along I-84 was not "lead-related." He said that, as long as the weather holds, authorities will press on with their ground searches.

Garza was last seen with Michael Mele, a convicted sex offender from the Town of Wallkill. The two were last seen Dec. 3.

Garza's brothers Sunday night organized a candlelight vigil outside of Mele's apartment to call attention to their missing sister. She relocated from Texas about six months ago with dreams of making it big in New York City.

Mele, who's not been charged with her disappearance, remains at the Orange County Jail on probation violation charges.

In the past two weeks, police have scoured Mele's apartment, car, the grassy and woody medians and shoulders of I-84, Route 17 and areas around Bloomingburg. State police divers also explored Echo Lake.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081229/NEWS/81229020
More photos and past reports/summary at link

State police search along the westbound lanes of Interstate 84 between exits 3 and 2 on Monday, Dec. 29, 2008. The search is believed to be connected to the disappearance of Laura Garza .

I have a question. WHY, Hasn't he been charged with her disapperance with ALL the evidence they have?  ::MonkeyConfused::

(http://images.recordonline.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=TH&Date=20081230&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=81230022&Ref=AR&maxH=230&maxW=370&border=0&Q=80)
K-9 Gamma of Ramapo Search and Rescue assists State police divers search Little Falls Pond in New Windsor Tuesday morning as the search resumes for missing Laura Garza.

Police focus on pond where Mele once fished as a kid
December 30, 2008 11:17 AM
Special Report: The search for Laura Garza

NEW WINDSOR — State police, focusing on an area where Michael Mele once fished with friends as a kid, converged Tuesday morning on a pond in an old industrial area of New Windsor as part of their search for Laura Garza.

About a dozen state police divers and canine handlers, joined by New Windsor town police and the Ramapo Rescue Dog Association, are searching an area known, depending on your age, as either “Clancyville,” “Ducktown” or “Little Falls.”

The area is a mix of residential and old industrial. Ther area is dotted with a quarry, a town-owned park known as Little Falls Park and is not far from a line of warehouses and apartment complexes in the City of Newburgh.

Police believe Mele, the sex offender who last seen Dec. 3 with Garza, had some familiarity with the area since he grew up in the nearby Town of Newburgh and used to fish at the pond.

Divers are in the swampy, shallow waters of Little Falls Pond off Cherry and Bradford avenues. Divers described the waters as “very silty” and filled with sediment.

There is no ice covering the pond.

Police say they continue to get a steady stream of tips from people who think they may have spotted something useful to their investigation as well as leads from psychics volunteering their services.

The convergence at Little Falls Pond is the latest development in the search for Garza, 25, the Brooklyn woman who was last seen Mele, 23. Mele, who has not been charged with her disappearance, remains at the Orange County Jail on probation-violation charges.

On Monday, about 30 state troopers searched beside the westbound lanes of I-84 near the Dolson Avenue entrance ramp just outside Middletown.

In the past two weeks, police have scoured Mele’s apartment and car, the grassy and woody medians and shoulders of I-84, Route 17 and areas around Bloomingburg. State police divers also searched Echo Lake.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081230/NEWS/81230022/-1/NEWS67

With bad weather pending, police press search for Garza at New Windsor pond

December 30, 2008
NEW WINDSOR — State police, focusing on an area familiar to Michael Mele from childhood, have been searching a New Windsor pond since 8:30 Tuesday morning in their efforts to find clues about what happened to Laura Garza.

Early in the afternoon, divers were examining a woman’s shoe they recovered, but investigators believe the footwear, which was practically disintegrated, had been there for some time and is unrelated to Garza’s whereabouts.

Police believe Mele, the Town of Wallkill sex offender who was last seen Dec. 3 with Garza, had some familiarity with the area since he grew up in the nearby Town of Newburgh and may have fished the pond as a boy.

The area is a mix of residential and old industrial. The area is dotted with a quarry, a town-owned park known as Little Falls Park and is not far from a line of warehouses and apartment complexes in the City of Newburgh.

Mele was one of about a dozen people at the park who were shooed away by New Windsor town police responding to a “suspicious vehicle” call at 2 a.m. on Aug. 30, 2003, according to documents obtained by the Times Herald-Record under a public records request.

The dozen people at the park were told “to move along,” according to documents.

New Windsor police recorded a total of five minor contacts with Mele since 2002, four of them for suspicious vehicle calls and one for a traffic stop. The other suspicious vehicle calls were for areas other than Little Falls Park.

Over the course of Tuesday, about a dozen state police divers and canine handlers, joined by New Windsor town police and the Ramapo Rescue Dog Association, searched an area known, depending on your age, as either “Clancyville,” “Ducktown” or “Little Falls.”

Divers searched the swampy, shallow waters of Little Falls Pond off Cherry and Bradford avenues. Police expect to be at the search site the bulk of the day, given a forecast for 1 to 3 inches of snow and blustery conditions that could hamper efforts Wednesday.

Police say they continue to get a steady stream of tips from people who think they may have spotted something useful to their investigation as well as leads from psychics volunteering their services.

The convergence at Little Falls Pond is the latest development in the search for Garza, 25, the Brooklyn woman who was last seen with Mele, 23. Mele, who has not been charged with her disappearance, remains at the Orange County Jail on probation violation charges.

On Monday, about 30 state troopers searched beside the westbound lanes of I-84 near the Dolson Avenue entrance ramp just outside Middletown.

In the past two weeks, police have scoured Mele’s apartment and car, the grassy and woody medians and shoulders of I-84, Route 17 and areas around Bloomingburg. State police divers also searched Echo Lake.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081230/NEWS/81230022

What happened to this poor girl ... My god. You know I think it all goes back to the initial place that she unfortunately met up with this Slime bag. That club. I found this online on a review of the Marquee.

I think that this place and the regulars who frequent it - prob do not even realize that they may have seen something. Too many people in mass confusion within this Clubs of this size. Jmo.

A young woman wrote her experience of this " Club" 11/2008


http://www.yelp.com/biz/marquee-new-york

DO NOT EVEN THINK OF GOING HERE.

I blacked out and collapsed in the club. Thankfully I was there with a friend. NOT ONE PERSON HELPED ME. I can't even express how messed up and scary that is. NOT ONE PERSON HELPED MY FRIEND PICK ME UP! He supposedly took me outside and while outside, the bouncers didn't help either. One of them apparently flagged down a cab to get me home so my friend didn't have to leave me, but that's it. WHAT JERKS. How can you just ignore the fact that someone collapsed in your club? What if I had a concussion or broke something??

$30 cover and this place sucked inside. Crappy music, pretty crappy people, and even worse service, clearly. $35 for two drinks is really out of hand. I am so angry about this garbage. The photos aren't accurate, either. It's pretty shi**y inside.

I can't believe not ONE person helped my friend carry me or got someone that works there to help us.

I think someone had put something in my drink because two drinks would not do this to me. I woke up in the hospital today. Thanks, Marquee!

If I were you, I wouldn't fund garbage like this.


Makes you wonder doesn't it ..... who is watching you.

I can not believe they have not found this poor girl's body...so sad.
This guy needs to ROT.

This is such a shame. On HLN today they were talking about how her brother lost his job over this.  I sure wish that she could be found so her family can have closure.

Aired January 13, 2009 - 19:00:00 ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

And coming up right here, breaking developments in the disappearance of 25-year-old Laura Garza; her family desperate for answers. I`m going to tell you how they`re being stone walled by the legal system. 1-877-JVM- SAYS, I want to hear from you 1-877-586-7297 talk to my expert panel about this case next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: 25-year-old Laura Garza has been missing for more than a month. I`ll have the latest details on what her distraught family is doing to get answers.

First, "Top of the Block" tonight: breaking developments in another tragic story; this one from Oklahoma. Police in El Reno found 25-year-old Summer Rust and her four children ages three through seven dead inside their home late yesterday. The state medical examiner has declared all five deaths to be homicide.

Cops have teamed up with the Oklahoma state bureau of investigation to hunt down a suspect, Rust`s 25-year-old boyfriend Joshua Durcho; Durcho last seen wearing a gray sweatshirt and jeans. He has several tattoos. He`s believed to be driving a white 1989 Ford Thunderbird with front-end damage.

If anyone spots this man or the vehicle please call the hot line appearing on your screen right now. Here on "ISSUES" I will be sure to update you with the very latest on the search for the killer in that shocking case.

Another search to talk about tonight: this one equally gut-wrenching; beautiful Texas native Laura Garza last seen a month ago with a convicted sex offender. She remains missing without a trace.

Earlier today emotions boiled over at an Orange County courthouse where the suspect Michael Mele was a last-minute no-show. He was set to appear in court for other criminal charges not related to Garza`s disappearance, but Laura Garza`s family had hoped to confront the man because they are certain he knows what happened to Laura.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICOLAS GARZA, LAURA GARZA`S BROTHER: We`re getting tired already for this person to be -- be in silence. He doesn`t want to speak and one way or another he needs to speak out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Laura Garza, an aspiring dancer was last seen leaving a Manhattan nightclub in the company of Mele. He has a history of sexual offenses that include masturbating in front of them. So far he remains silent, consistently rebuffing the Garza`s pleas for him to talk.

I want your thoughts on this. Call me 1-877-JVM-SAYS; that`s 1-877- 586-7297. Weigh in please.

Joining me now, my panel: Ashleigh Banfield, anchor of "In Session;" on the phone, Larry McShane, reporter for the New York Daily News; and Awilda Cordero, founder of Emergency Rights, a south Bronx victim`s rights group that has been helping the Garza family.

Awilda, you were in court today with the Garzas. The family says they were surprised and very disappointed to the point of tears that they didn`t get to see the suspect. Tell us what happened? What went down today?

AWILDA CORDERO, EMERGENCY RIGHTS: We went into the courtroom. They told us to be there at 9:00. We went upstairs and as soon as we walked in the court officers told us I`m sorry, but if you`re here on the Laura Garza case, they already suspended the case. And we were just told just like that.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So you didn`t get any advanced warning and the family was pretty devastated? I understand the mother of Laura Garza was crying?

CORDERO: She was very upset. All of us were very upset. We felt like they were playing games with us. The police department and the state police actually told us to get there at 9:00 in the morning and we were told to be there at 8:00 in the morning and his parents were there and he did appear, but he didn`t come into the courtroom. He decided not to go in. He stood outside.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We have called into New York state police and prosecutors to get their response to this particular complaint and we`ve not gotten a comment on that.

Ashleigh Banfield, you and I have been in court many times. I`ve never had an experience where the proceeding began when exactly it was going to begin with a few exceptions. Is this the typical kind of runaround that families of victims get when they go to court and try to get justice?

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, ANCHOR, "IN SESSION": This is not easy being a victim of crime and sadly the crime that Mr. Mele is facing in court right now doesn`t have anything to do with their situation. So reality is that his appearance today was just a pro forma thing and it`s often waived. That`s a sort of a standard thing for those accused to waive their appearances to these kinds of status conferences. So it is not unusual that he might have done that.

If he showed up in the courthouse and decided not to go to the courtroom, it may have been because the family was there, but it doesn`t mean anything to the case.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, and just to clarify, Mele has been described as a person of interest. But New York state police today when we called them told us that he is now considered a suspect in Laura Garza`s disappearance, however it`s important to point out that he is not facing any criminal charges in connection with the Laura Garza disappearance at this time.

He is, however, facing some other charges. Larry McShane, you`re a reporter for the "Daily News." You`ve been covering this. What else is he facing involving probation violations, credit cards, all sorts of things.

LARRY MCSHANE, REPORTER, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: The charges that you mentioned initially which involved sex offenses in a mall up in suburban New York, and also when his apartment was gone over by the police investigating in this case, stolen credit cards were found there.

So basically they were able to bring him in on those charges for violating his parole on the sex offense charges and that`s allowed them to keep him in custody as they investigate the disappearance of Laura Garza.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I have to say that authorities are working very, very hard on this case. They`ve had divers searching bodies of water. Police, firefighters, many others have been searching. You`ve seen that, Awilda Cordero. I think your major concern is do you have to be a rich person in this society to have the time and money to wait out the slow wheels of justice?

Your family has come here from Texas. The family that you`re helping and they`re running out of money and they want to find out what happened to their daughter. Is that a correct assessment?

CORDERO: Yes, that is correct. And exactly, that`s what we`re doing. We`re trying to just find Laura. Not only the state police doing the search, but the family is actually out there looking for her, too and myself and a whole bunch of us volunteered. We`re actually going and hitting in the mountains and looking for her. And the volunteers of state firemen department, the state police, everybody is out there searching for her, but that`s not the point.

The point here is also that his father did not tell the truth to the parole.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me jump in here. You went to the home of Mele`s parents today -- and I think we have some video of this -- actually went up and knocked on the door and wanted to get some answers and we`ll show that in a second if we can dig it up. And the thing is that you are trying to pressure the parents into getting the son who is a suspect in this case to talk, is that correct?

CORDERO: Yes, that is correct. We actually went to the house today. The mother wanted to speak to the parents. And tell them that as a mother, she just wants them to help, to convince their son to please talk and let us know where Laura`s at. She didn`t go there to make any problems. She just wanted to speak to them as parents.

We went in, we knocked. We saw somebody move into the house and they didn`t want to open the door to us so we actually left a flyer on the door to let them know this is what we`re here for.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And by the way Mele`s dad is a retired deputy chief of the MTA police and we`ll talk about that in a second. Hang tight. Get on the phone and give me a call: 1-877-JVM-SAYS to talk about this case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIZABETH ESQUIVEL, LAURA GARZA`S MOTHER (through translator): Please help your son. Ask him -- and she`s a mother like I am -- to please ask him where`s my Laura.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: That is the distraught mother of Laura Garza today outside the home of the parents` of suspect Michael Mele pleading for help.

I am back with my panel. Phone lines light up.

Melissa in New York, your question or thought?

MELISSA, CALLER FROM NEW YORK: My question is how are they going to have a sex offender buying into a Quiznos franchise without having a complete background check and hiring young girls?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, Larry McShane, what about the franchise?

MCSHANE: That`s not a police matter.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But he owned a franchise, right?

MCSHANE: Yes, he owned a Quiznos operation, absolutely yes; apparently financed by his parents. But I don`t think that`s a law enforcement issue; that`s probably more a corporate issue for Quiznos.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ashley Banfield, can this guy walk, given that he has not been charged in connection with the Laura Garza disappearance?

BANFIELD: Yes and no. And I hate to be sort of effusive. But the reality is two years ago this guy got probation for six years. So they can hold him because he was in violation of that probation.

And I know that the family of Laura Garza is having tough -- is having a tough time with the slow wheels of justice but the truth is it works to their advantage. The longer they can hold him and gather any evidence, the better they can build a case. So in this -- in this circumstance it might seem painful but it`s probably a really good thing that the police can be meticulous and do as much work as they possibly can before the indict because once you indict, the wheels of justice have to move faster.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Absolutely and they have some pretty significant evidence thus far. His car was cleaned with bleach, according to authorities. He had bite and scratch marks on his shoulders and back and carpeting was found near, somewhere in the area, and they`re trying to see if it matches carpeting missing from his apartment. So, Ashleigh, do you think they`re doing the tests right now in terms of building their case?

BANFIELD: Oh, I wouldn`t doubt it for a moment. And here`s something else, the fact that he`s not talk also might be painful to the Garza family. But it kind of gives the police carte blanche to zero in on this person of interest rather than wasting a bunch of time, energy, and resources on all of the other people she was last seen with. The person who was last seen with a missing woman not speaking, that is suspicious. So it really helps police zero in on one person to investigate.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right, they might be able to use that in court some time.

Awilda, Ashley, Larry, thanks so much for your insight for joining me tonight.

I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell and you`re watching "ISSUES" on HLN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: A probation hearing for suspect Michael Mele has been set for January 26th. It might be the first opportunity the Garza family has to get some answers as they continue to search for their beloved Laura; for more details on this case, check out my column on cnn.com tomorrow.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0901/13/ijvm.01.html

No confrontation in NY missing woman caseJanuary 13, 2009
detail from court session; ADDS background on case.

GOSHEN, N.Y. (AP) _ An anticipated courtroom confrontation between the family of a missing woman and the sex offender last seen with her fizzled Tuesday when the man did not appear.

Defense lawyers waived Michael Mele's right to attend Tuesday's conference in Orange County Court on charges unrelated to the disappearance of Laura Garza.

Garza's mother, Elizabeth Esquivel, and her brothers, Nicolas and Ivan Garza, had expected to get their first look at Mele, 23, since Laura Garza disappeared.

Garza, 25, of Brooklyn, was last seen Dec. 3, leaving a Manhattan club with Mele and heading toward his Wallkill home.

Mele has not been charged in the Garza case, but state police call him a "person of interest" and have been searching his apartment and the lakes, fields and highways around it for more than a month.

Mele, who has been jailed since Dec. 6 for violations of his sex-offender probation, has refused to talk to police about Garza and has turned away the Garza family's attempts to visit him in jail.

"If he's innocent, why is he hiding?" a frustrated Nicolas Garza asked after the court session, which the family did not attend. "He's scared to see us."

Esquivel, in tears, said in Spanish, "I feel destroyed."

At the court session, dealing with charges that Mele possessed stolen credit cards and failed to register an address change, Judge Nicholas De Rosa set April 1 for pretrial hearings.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--missingwoman0113jan13,0,5213272.story

This guy is a psychopath just like Joran Van der Sloot.

This girl never had a chance.  I agree with the post that said she was drugged.  I had said this from day one that he put something in her drink.

Sex offender Mele's court appearance put off until April
1/27/09

TOWN OF NEWBURGH — The family of Laura Garza will have to wait until at least April to get a glimpse of Michael Mele, the sex offender who’s been scrutinized by police investigating her disappearance last year.

A hearing to decide whether Mele violated the terms of his probation was to take place Wednesday evening in Newburgh Town Court, but a court clerk said Tuesday that the hearing’s been rescheduled for an undetermined date in April.

It’s the second time the hearing has been postponed.

It was originally scheduled to take place on Jan. 12, but it was rescheduled so that it could take place in a larger courtroom than the one that was available.

The reason for Wednesday’s postponement wasn’t immediately clear.

Mele, 23, of the Town of Wallkill, is scheduled to appear in Orange County Court on April 1, for a pretrial hearing on felony charges of possession of stolen credit and debit cards, and failure to notify the state of a change of address.

As a Level 1 registered sex offender, Mele’s required to keep the state Department of Criminal Justice Services up to date on his address. He’s on probation for misdemeanor sex offenses in Rockland County.

Garza’s family has traveled from her native Texas to New York, joining the exhaustive search for her.

Her family and supporters plan to hold a vigil on Feb. 3, beginning at 4:30 p.m. at the Newburgh Mall.

That day marks the two-month anniversary of her disappearance.

She was last seen in the front passenger seat of Mele’s car in the mall’s parking lot.

Mele’s being held in the Orange County Jail in lieu of $300,000 bail or $900,000 bond.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090127/NEWS/90127035

New records in the Michael Mele case posted online
January 21, 2009
New documents in the Michael Mele case were posted online today. Below you can find information on his arrest record in Rockland County and information on his business.

- Rockland County arrest record
- Small Business Administration Information on the Mele Group
- Small Business Administration Application
- Small Business Administration Response Letter
links at site>
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090121/NEWS/90121027

Family holds upstate NY vigil for missing woman

February 5, 2009
NEWBURGH, N.Y. - Family and friends of a missing New York City woman have held a vigil in front of an upstate home to call attention to her disappearance more than two months ago.

The crowd of about three dozen people stood in front of the home of Michael Mele's (MEE'-lee) parents in the Town of Newburgh on Thursday.

Investigators say Laura Garza met Mele at a Manhattan nightclub. The 25-year-old Brooklyn woman was last seen Dec. 3 at the Newburgh Mall with Mele, a convicted sex offender. Newburgh is about 60 miles north of New York City.

The crowd shouted "Where is Laura?" and recited a prayer. The house appeared unoccupied.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--missingwoman0205feb05,0,3443791.story

Garza search helps drive up Troop F overtime almost 33 percent

Posted: February 14, 2009 - 2:00 AM

CRYSTAL RUN — Overtime for Troop F jumped by more than 30 percent in December compared to the same month a year before as state police marshaled investigators, dogs and dive crews to solve the mystery of Laura Garza’s disappearance.

Overtime costs for the troop rose by $66,000 in December 2008 compared to December 2007, according to a Times Herald-Record analysis.

Troop F Maj. Edward Raso cited a number of reasons, but said the Garza case was undeniably a big factor.

Overtime hours and pay earned by State Police Troop F personnel in 2008 (Excel File) “It’s true for any major criminal investigation,” Raso said. “It’s not exclusively the Garza case, but probably a good chunk of it is.”

Garza, a Texas native who was living in New York City, was last seen at a McDonald’s at the Newburgh Mall with Wallkill resident Michael Mele, who she met in a New York City nightclub just before dawn Dec. 3.

In the frenzied month that followed, Troop F spent at least $269,000 in overtime, compared to $203,000 in December 2007.

And as Mele, a person of interest in Garza’s disappearance, sits mute in an Orange County Jail cell on unrelated charges, police continue looking for new leads.

Mele, a convicted sex offender, is being held on probation violation and stolen property charges.

Police and volunteers have scoured highways, swamplands and wooded areas throughout Orange County searching for clues about Garza.

With a thaw in the winter weather this week, police hoped to resume their searches although they had not settled on an exact timetable.

Although there’s no body, Raso said Garza’s disappearance is being treated as a homicide because it’s easier to scale back a homicide investigation than ramp-up a missing person case.

But the investigation comes at a time when every agency in the state is under pressure to cut costs, particularly overtime, a task especially difficult for state police because they devote a lot of time to attending local traffic courts and have no control over the investigations that come their way.

Even so, Raso said, overtime for his troop is down in the first five weeks of 2009, compared to the same period in 2008.

“You try to be as creative as you can, but you can only do so much,” he said. “Anytime you take a body off the road, you lose coverage.”
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090214/NEWS/90213046

Search for Missing Brooklyn Woman Reaches 80 Days

02-18-2009
Residents From Bay Ridge to Orange County Remain Dismayed at Lack of Evidence

BAY RIDGE — The search for Laura Garza, 25, is continuing in the area surrounding Wallkill, N.Y., where the Bay Ridge woman was last seen in early December.

However, she has not been found by the vigilant state troopers and local police who continue to scour every field and forest in Orange County.

Convicted sex offender and “person of interest” Michael Mele, 23, who is currently in an Orange County jail for probation violations, has refused to speak to authorities about Garza’s whereabouts or the events of Dec. 3.

Supporters of the Garza family have continued to meet and pass out missing-persons fliers as the search nears three months in length without success, despite constant searches by teams that include citizens and off-duty cops and firefighters who have volunteered to help.

Frustration is mounting that while Mele is in police custody he is exercising his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and refusing to speak.

Last week a group of almost 40 people stood outside Mele’s parents’ home, chanting “Where is Laura? Where is Laura?” reported the Times Herald-Record, the local newspaper that has been meticulously documenting the search.

Mele’s parents were not in the house at that time and only returned after supporters and TV crews left. Some of the Garza family’s supporters also posted a missing persons flier with Garza’s picture on the Mele home’s front door recently.

It seems that the Garza family is desperate for any information from Mele or his family members — even if that means the location of Garza’s remains.

Garza’s two brothers and mother have been in New York since she disappeared. They came from McAllen, Texas, their hometown, to assist authorities. They have found a network of support in Orange County, where members of the community have helped them with friendship and meals, and with organizing prayer vigils.

There is a MySpace web page and Facebook internet group dedicated to the search for Laura Garza, where people post updates and talk about volunteering to help police.

“Me and my wife can’t help but looking on the sides of roads for clues,” one man posted.

Bay Ridge residents have also been shocked by the disappearance of Garza, who had moved in to an apartment on Shore Road several months ago.

Garza and Mele met at the “Marquee” nightclub in Chelsea on the night of her disappearance, where they were filmed on security cameras. Mele drove them to Orange County in his SUV, and the pair were seen laughing and kissing in Mele’s car at Newburgh Mall in the early morning of Dec. 3.

Mele, who owned a local Quizno’s sandwich shop, turned himself in to authorities on Dec. 6, after Garza had been reported missing, and was arrested for probation violations and possession of stolen property.

Investigators found torn sections of carpet in his apartment and suspect he may have been trying to destroy evidence.

Mele had been given six years probation for forcible touching and public masturbation charges last year. He is scheduled for a pretrial hearing in Orange County Court on April 1.

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=26466

Search for NYC woman to resume this weekend

February 27, 2009
NEWBURGH, N.Y. - The search for a New York City woman missing since early December has been partially suspended due to snow cover.

Investigators say Laura Garza met convicted sex offender Michael Mele's (MEE'-lee) at a Manhattan nightclub.

The 25-year-old Brooklyn woman was last seen December 3 with Mele in Newburgh, about 60 miles north of New York City. Police say Mele is a person of interest but hasn't been charged in Garza's disappearance.

Mele, a 23-year-old sandwich-shop owner from the Town of Wallkill, has been held in jail on probation violation charges since December 6.

On Thursday, state police suspended a search planned for this weekend in Sullivan County due to snow. A renewed search in parts of Orange County will continue as scheduled Saturday with about 200 police and volunteer firefighters.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--missingwoman0227feb27,0,5540951.story

Police call off weekend search for missing woman in Sullivan County
By Jenna Carlesso • The Journal News • February 27, 2009
State police in Sullivan County have canceled their weekend searches for a 25-year-old woman - who was last seen with a sex offender convicted in Rockland - because of snow.

Laura Garza of Brooklyn went missing in December not long after she was spotted with Michael Mele, a registered sex offender, at a Manhattan night club. She was last seen with him in Newburgh on Dec. 4.


Mele, 23, has since been held on allegations that he violated his probation.

After consulting with local fire departments, officers suspended the search Saturday and Sunday because of snow cover.

A search in western Orange County will continue as scheduled, police said.

"The snow is hindering (in Sullivan) because you can't see anything," said Lt. Brian Shortall of the state police.

When he was arrested in early December, Mele had been on probation for his March guilty pleas to misdemeanor charges that he masturbated and improperly touched women in the Palisades Center mall parking lot. He also pressed himself against some of the women and ejaculated on their clothes and into a car, court documents state.

The probation violation charges were filed as state and New York City police focused on Mele as the prime suspect in Garza's disappearance. Police have searched Mele's Wallkill condominium, the grounds and outside, and found several items linked to the case, they said.

Those planning to deliver food donations for the searchers are asked to direct them to the Bullville Fire Department on Route 17K, which will serve as the command post for the operation. Fire crews are assisting police in the searches.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the State Police's Bureau of Criminal Investigation at 845-344-5300.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20090227/NEWS03/902270354/1019/RSS0102

Search for Missing 25 Year Old Laura Garza to Continues in Upstate NY

http://missingexploited.com/2009/03/01/search-for-missing-25-year-old-laura-garza-to-continues-in-upstate-ny/

Trial Without a Body Likely Looms, As Hopes Fade for Finding Laura

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BAY RIDGE — Although the man suspected in the disappearance of a 25-year-old Bay Ridge woman will appear in court Wednesday, he won’t be questioned about the night he spent with Laura Garza – the night she disappeared, four months ago.

Convicted sex offender Michael Mele, of Wallkill, met Garza at the Marquee nightclub in Chelsea and drove her upstate in the early morning hours of Dec. 3. She has not been seen since.

Four months have passed with police searching nonstop for Garza. They have failed to find Garza or evidence of her whereabouts, despite search teams scouring Orange County and the surrounding towns.

Although a fire department coordinator in Upstate New York announced the end of large sweeping searches two weeks ago, police have continued looking for clues. With warmer weather, police may even step up their searches, according to reports.

Members of the Ramapo Search and Rescue Dog Association and state police have searched near Mele’s Wallkill apartment, as well as in Wallkill River, which until recently was covered with snow and ice.

When Mele appears in Orange County Court tomorrow, it will be for a pretrial conference for possession of stolen credit card charges. Those charges and probation violations have allowed authorities to keep Mele, who turned himself over to police, in custody since Garza disappeared.

On April 22, Mele is scheduled to appear in Newburgh Town Court for a hearing to discuss whether he violated probation guidelines by drinking at the club in Chelsea where he met Garza. Mele received six years probation and was registered as a sex offender after he pled guilty to groping and masturbating on women in the Palisades Shopping Mall in late 2007.

Security cameras at Marquee recorded Mele’s encounter with Garza, a recent Texas transplant who moved to Shore Road in Bay Ridge several months earlier and worked at Payless shoe store in Manhattan. Mele later drove Garza to Newburgh, about 70 miles north of Brooklyn.

She was last seen making out and laughing in Mele’s car at a Newburgh shopping mall in the early morning hours.

Since Garza disappeared, Mele has had his parents’ support and a strong defense team which is rumored to include family friends. However, Mele may lose some of that protection as his parents recently declared bankruptcy.

William and Michele Mele filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy about two weeks ago, listing $700,000 in debt. This type of bankruptcy is usually for individuals who intend to pay back their creditors and is sometimes referred to as “reorganization.”

The Meles identify themselves in bankruptcy papers as the owners of their son’s Quizno’s sandwich shop. Mele was in debt for $14,000 in back rent and utilities at the time of his arrest. He had received a court order to pay off the debt the day before he met Garza.

Orange County newspapers reported that papers filed in U.S. District Bankruptcy Court in Poughkeepsie show that the Meles have approximately $400,000 in assets – mostly concentrated in their home in Newburgh.

William Mele is a retired Assistant Deputy Chief of MTA Police, who was commended for catching a sexual predator who raped teenage girls on Metro-North property in 1984. He also helped solve the robbery-murder of a newsstand clerk in 1987, before retiring in 2004 after an injury, according to the Times Herald Record.

However, state police have stated that they are slowly and carefully building a case with prosecutors against Mele, with or without Garza’s body being found.

Prosecutors in the past have secured guilty convictions without finding a body. There is strong circumstantial evidence against Mele that prosecutors may use.

Police found scratch and bite marks on Mele’s hand and shoulder when he was first detained, which they photographed for evidence with a judge’s permission. Police also found patches of carpet torn out of his apartment, which may indicate an attempt to destroy evidence.

Perhaps one of the most incriminating acts by Mele is that he reportedly called a male friend – who met Garza with Mele, and is cooperating with police – on Dec. 4, to ask if police had contacted the friend. Mele allegedly told his friend that Garza had been reported missing and that he was worried.

However, Garza was not in fact reported missing until several hours after that phone call, according to the Times Herald-Record.
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=27298

I have a suicide in Newburgh... mmmmm.......wonder if it is connected in any way.
Very little info on it >> Probably won't get much more than this. Very seldom are suicides publicly identified.

Body found in Eastern Orange County

TOWN OF NEWBURGH – Police now say the body found in a wooded area off Route 17K and the Thruway in the Town of Newburgh was that of a suicide victim.

The body was found after 4 p.m. on Wednesday.

State Police and the Orange County Medical Examiner’s Office are investigating.
http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2009/April09/02/TNbrg_body-02Apr09.html

Lewdness charge for man linked to missing NY woman
April 11, 2009 1:15 PM ET

NANUET, N.Y. (AP) - A convicted sex offender under investigation for last year's disappearance of a 25-year-old Brooklyn woman faces charges of public lewdness.

Michael Mele (MEEH'-leh) is accused of skipping a mandatory sex-offender counseling session on the day authorities say he exposed himself in front of a tanning-salon attendant in Rockland County.

The counseling was part of the 23-year-old's probationary sentence for a string of misdemeanor sex crimes - before he became a suspect in the December disappearance of Laura Garza. He met her at a nightclub.

Mele is being held in Orange County Jail while authorities continue investigating Garza's disappearance.
http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=10167813

Family Holds Service For Missing McAllen Woman
Last Update: 10:47 am 
MCALLEN - It's been five months since Laura Garza disappeared in New York City. Police still have no leads in the case. Her family just got back from New York and hosted a service in her honor. They sang and prayed for any information about her fate.

The 25-year-old was last seen leaving a Manhattan night club with registered sex offender Michael Mele. Mele has been arrested, but he was never charged in Laura's disappearance.

The family just hopes they find out what happened to her.

"Every single day, they're long days, long days waiting for a call.... to tell us they found her or something.  But it hasn't happened," says Nicolas Garza.

The family says they will be returning to New York City in the next few weeks. They plan to stay there until they find out what happened to Laura.
 
http://www.krgv.com/mostpopular/story/Family-Holds-Service-For-Missing-McAllen-Woman/IJcIVeVaekKvU5hg5vlkFw.cspx

Missing woman charmed by NYC, dreamed of making it big
Laura Garza still a vivid presence to her family
(http://images.recordonline.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=TH&Date=20090510&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=905080381&Ref=AR&maxH=230&maxW=370&border=0&Q=80)

A very lengthy article and more photos at the link...many links to past news too........
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090510/NEWS/905080381/-1/NEWS
Posted: May 10, 2009 - 2:00 AM
snipped>>>>>
Coming to New York
Laura Garza was born in 1983 in a small town near Monterrey, Mexico, the youngest of Nicolas and Elizabeth Esquivel Garza's three children.

She was 13 when she her father died. There wasn't much warning: Her father was relaxing at home after work at an oil refinery. It was 1996. He was 44.

"He had a heart attack," Nicolas remembers, "right there, lying on the couch."

In search of a better life, their mother moved the family to Texas.

She brought Nicolas and Laura to McAllen, a border city in the booming Rio Grande Valley. Ivan, the older brother, stayed in Mexico.

Nicolas and Laura both graduated from Mission High School. Nicolas went to work as a pipe fitter in the refining industry.

Laura spent two semesters at a community college. She talked about going into business administration. She pondered becoming a teacher. Eventually, she went to work at Charlotte Russe, part of a national chain of girls' apparel stores.

After work, she'd go out with friends. She wasn't a big drinker. The fun came in dressing up, in getting together in big crowds.

One night in May 2008, Laura called her brothers. She had an announcement.

Ivan and Nicolas met with Laura and some of her friends. Nicolas and Laura's friends talked in one group, while Ivan and his sister talked face to face.

I want to leave McAllen. I want to live in New York, Laura said.

She'd spent a week there on vacation by herself. When she returned, she was obviously smitten by the city.

"I remember she had a lot of T-shirts - I Love New York," Nicolas recalls.

But moving? Her family and friends were in Texas. Her brother and her niece and nephew weren't far away in Mexico.

Why move, Ivan asked.

"I don't know. Maybe it's just for a year. I need to try another place," Laura said.

"My only advice to you is, go look," Ivan said. "You're 25 years old. "¦"

"She was old enough," Nicolas added.

"It's not like permission. I don't know, maybe she thought she needed permission from her big brother."

Neither brother was crazy about the idea.

But Nicolas wasn't about to tell his sister that he didn't think she should explore.

For one thing, she wasn't afraid of anything.

She could tame the world with her enormous smile, charm the most crusted-over heart with her liquid, deep brown eyes and her lustrous, chocolate brown hair.

For another thing, she had talked about modeling and dancing. New York is the place to pursue that.

Not San Antonio or Houston, where she and her friends had talked of moving. And not Acapulco. But New York.

Within a month of her announcement, Laura Garza had arranged for Charlotte Russe management to transfer her to New York.

She found a room to lease, packed up her things and moved.

She thought it would be for a year.

Posted: June 16, 2009 - 11:49 AM
GOSHEN — Prosecutors will try to persuade a judge to reverse his decision Monday, which tossed out some of the evidence against the Orange County man who’s the focus of an intense search for missing Brooklynite Laura Garza.

That man, sex offender Michael Mele, appeared briefly in County Court Tuesday for a pre-trial conference. He listened quietly, with his parents sitting behind him on a bench, as Judge Nicholas DeRosa said he expects Mele to go on trial in late August. Mele faces felony charges of criminal possession of stolen property and failure to notify the state that he changed his address last summer from the Town of Newburgh to the Town of Wallkill.

On Monday, DeRosa ruled in favor of Mele’s defense lawyers, who argued that stolen credit and debit cards seized from Mele’s apartment at the Regency Club on Dec. 6 were beyond the scope of the search warrant that state police obtained in the first fevered hours of the search for Garza. But DeRosa ruled that the search warrant was otherwise proper, and the bulk of the evidence seized during the search, including clothing, digital cameras and cleaning supplies, is still available to prosecutors.

DeRosa gave the Orange County District Attorney’s Office until June 22 to submit written arguments, explaining why prosecutors should be allowed to reargue the inclusion of the stolen credit and debit cards in the case against Mele.

DeRosa said he’ll decide by July 1 whether to allow the reargument.
Mele is nowhere near leaving the Orange County Jail, where he’s been held since Dec. 6, three days after he was seen leaving Club Marquee in New York City with the 25-year-old Garza.

He’s still facing charges that he violated his probation for misdemeanor sex offenses in Rockland County by going to Club Marquee, because one condition of his probation was that he was to avoid places that served booze.

He’s facing new charges of exposing himself to tanning-salon attendants in Rockland County last year, while he was on probation for his previous offenses at the Palisades Center Mall. He’s wanted on a similar charge in Paramus, N.J.

And even if the stolen-property case falls apart in Orange County Court, Mele is still facing a felony charge of failing to register his address change, which is one of the conditions of being placed on New York’s sex-offender registry. That charge carries a more severe penalty - 2 1/3 to seven years in prison, maximum - than the stolen-property charges, which carry a maximum of 1 1/3 to four years.

Mele wasn’t required to speak in court on Tuesday. After the five-minute proceeding, sheriff’s deputies escorted him out of the courtroom, and he was returned to the jail, where he’s being held in lieu of $300,000 cash bail or $900,000 bond.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090616/NEWS/90616015

NO JUSTICE FOR TRAGIC LAURA
 

Last updated: 3:43 am
July 5, 2009
Posted: 3:16 am
July 5, 2009

It's been seven months of relentless pain, unanswered questions and frustrating dead ends for the family of missing Brooklyn beauty Laura Garza -- and there's no end in sight.

Garza, 25, was last seen on Dec. 3 leaving Chelsea hot spot Marquee with "person of interest" Michael Mele, a convicted sex offender from Rockland County.

In the months since, police have searched in vain for her body, Mele has not been charged or even questioned over her disappearance, and forensic evidence is still being analyzed.

But the family has faith it will soon have closure.

"We are speaking to the investigators every weekend, and they are sending out like 40 dogs to look for my sister," said Garza's brother Nicholas. "We feel that they are really trying to get to the bottom of what happened."

The State Police are still getting tips, spokesman Lt. Brian Shortall said.

" Shortall said that although Mele is "not cooperating," investigators have been interviewing "associates of his" and are "still processing a lot of evidence through the forensics lab."

Mele, 23, has been in Orange County Jail since Dec. 6, facing parole violations, a felony charge for failing to register his change of address as a sex offender and possession of stolen property.

The failure-to-register charge carries a penalty of almost 2½ years.

"We have had assurances that he isn't going anywhere," Nicholas Garza said.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07052009/news/regionalnews/manhattan/no_justice_for_tragic_laura_177716.htm


Sex Offender’s Credit-Card Charges Dismissed, As Laura Garza Murder Investigation Continues
by Samuel Newhouse (sam@brooklyneagle.net), published online 06-22-2009
 

By Samuel Newhouse
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BAY RIDGE — A judge ruled two stolen credit card charges in the case of a convicted sex offender suspected of murder had to be thrown out, as the credit cards should not have been taken as evidence by police.

Sex offender Michael Mele is suspected in the December 2008 disappearance of 25-year-old Bay Ridge woman Laura Garza, but has not been charged with Garza’s disappearance. Police and prosecutors are reportedly still building a murder case.

Meanwhile, authorities in Orange County have kept Mele in custody on probation violation charges. The most serious crime he has been accused of was felony charges for the credit cards, but with the judge’s recent decision, those charges may be dropped completely. Prosecutors were granted one week to file written arguments to the judge to see if they can argue for the evidence to be re-admitted.

The credit cards, which had been reported missing a year prior in New York City, were discovered in Mele’s Newburgh apartment during a search of the premises shortly after Garza was reported missing. The search warrant, however, explicitly directed investigators to search for evidence related to Garza’s disappearance.

The credit cards “were not contraband, nor did they, standing alone, constitute evidence of the commission of or attempted commission of any crime,” said an Orange County judge, according to the Times-Herald Record. He suppressed those pieces of evidence, but did not suppress any of the other dozens of items police seized from Mele’s home, such as clothes, condoms and cleaning supplies.

Mele has refused to answer questions about the events of Dec. 3 when he was videotaped at the Chelsea nightclub Marquee with Garza, before he was allegedly witnessed driving her upstate that night. She has not been seen since.

A separate indictment charges Mele with failure to register a change of address with police, which is required of convicted sex offenders. He may also be charged with felonies for allegedly exposing himself to a tanning-salon attendant in Rockland County, and for a 2005 New Jersey incident in which he allegedly stood behind a bench that a female child was sitting on and masturbated on the bench.

Six-and-a-half months after her disappearance, Garza is presumed dead. Her image adorned a float in last weekend’s Puerto Rican Day parade.

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=29007

Suspect in Laura Garza Disappearance Pleads Guilty For Sex Offender Violations

BAY RIDGE — Prosecutors have more time to build a possible murder case against sex offender Michael Mele for the disappearance of a Bay Ridge woman, after he pled guilty to an unrelated charge this week.

Mele, 23, pled guilty in Orange County Court on Tuesday to failing to register a change of address to the state parole board, which is required of sex offenders. The plea deal could keep him in jail for one to three years.

Mele, of Wallkill, has already been in police custody for 10 months. He turned himself in after police began investigating the disappearance of Laura Garza, 25, of Bay Ridge, in December 2008.

While state police have spent months searching the wooded areas of Orange County for Garza’s body, they’ve also been working with prosecutors to prepare a murder case against Mele even if the body is not recovered, according to a past interview with Cpt. Wayne Olson. However, authorities have not announced any definite plans for when that will take place.

Mele was put on probation after pleading guilty to masturbating on women in the Palisades Center Mall parking lot.

An Orange County Court judge recently threw out felony charges against Mele for possession of stolen credit cards after ruling that police did not have the right to confiscate those credit cards when they conducted a search of his apartment. Police were only authorized to search for evidence related to Garza’s disappearance.

Mele is facing other charges, including allegations that he exposed himself to a tanning-salon attendant and possibly charges related to masturbating on a park bench while a female child sat nearby.

Mele will appear in November in Newburgh Town Court for a hearing to determine if he violated his probation by allegedly skipping mandatory sex offender counseling and going to the Marquee nightclub in Chelsea, even though he was ordered to stay out of establishments that serve alcohol.

While Mele was at Marquee he encountered Garza, originally from McAllen, Texas. They were caught on security cameras dancing together, and Garza was last seen laughing and kissing Mele in his car in the vicinity of Newburgh.

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=31062

An Orange County Court judge recently threw out felony charges against Mele for possession of stolen credit cards after ruling that police did not have the right to confiscate those credit cards when they conducted a search of his apartment. Police were only authorized to search for evidence related to Garza’s disappearance.

Oh, right Mr. Judge, how silly.  Stolen credit cards, but gosh! LE didn't have permission to take them.  We are so sorry. . . and the victims' rights are where?
 :smt091 :2brickwall: :smt075 :smt075 :smt075 :smt021 :smt021 :smt021 :2brickwall: :smt091

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=11247203
NY man eyed in 1 probe jailed in 2nd case

Associated Press - October 2, 2009 12:25 PM ET

GOSHEN, N.Y. (AP) - A man at the center of an investigation into the disappearance of a Brooklyn woman is going to prison on an unrelated charge.

Prosecutors in Orange County say 23-year-old Michael Mele (MEE'-lee) of Wallkill failed to report that he had changed his address. He is required to register with authorities as a sex offender following a 2008 conviction.

Mele pleaded guilty this week and faces 1-3 years in prison.

He has never been charged in the disappearance of 25-year-old Laura Garza of Brooklyn, who was last seen with Mele on Dec. 3, 2008, after they left a Manhattan nightclub together.

Intensive searches for Garza or her body have been fruitless.

http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2009/October09/02/domovio_OC-02Oct09.html
Orange County marks domestic violence month

Diana, podium, other advocates, remember the victims

GOSHEN – It was an all too familiar sight. A total of 450 t-shirts on a clothesline, strung on trees around the Orange County Government Center in Goshen.

The clothesline project on Thursday marked the beginning of domestic violence month in the county.

Thirteen women have either been killed or are missing at the hands of their intimate partners.

Michelle McKeon, executive director of Orange County Safe Homes, spoke at a ceremony.

“We’ve added two new shirts to this line that we have created and this marks all of the women murdered in Orange County since 2004,” she said. “We also have two women who are missing who we always add to this line as well. One is Laura Garza and one is Petra Mohammad, who has been missing for quite some time and who we have not been able to recognize formally.”
“One is too many,” said County Executive Edward Diana in speaking about domestic violence deaths. Figures released this week by the state that showed a rise in domestic violence over the last eight years are disturbing, he said.

Boys find suspected skull fragments in Slate Hill cemetery
State police are investigating the possible discovery of human skull fragments and other skeletal remains in the Ridgebury Cemetery on Ridgebury Hill Road in Slate Hill.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091116/NEWS/911159994

Slate Hill is near Goshen in Orange County, which is discussed a lot in this thread.

Technicality lands sex offender Michael Mele in jail: Eyed in missing woman Laura Garza's case

Saturday, November 7th 2009, 4:00 AM

A sex sicko who was the last person seen with a missing Brooklyn woman is going to prison for up to three years - for failing to register his new address with the state.

The family of Laura Garza said it is glad Michael Mele will be behind bars for a while, even if it's because of a technicality.

"He deserves it," said Garza's brother, Nicolas.

Mele is a "person of interest" in the disappearance of the 25-year-old beauty, who left the Manhattan club Marquee with him last winter and vanished.

Her body hasn't been found and he hasn't been charged, but the case caused new problems for Mele.

He was forced to register as a sex offender after pleading guilty to exposing himself and attacking a woman in the Palisades Center mall parking lot two years ago.

While under scrutiny in the Garza case, it came to light that he had moved without registering his new address. He pleaded guilty to that charge in September.

Orange County Court Judge Nicholas DeRosa called Mele's crimes "depraved and unfathomable" before sentencing him to one to three years Friday.

Garza's aunt, Isela Villalobos, said the family hasn't lost hope that Mele eventually will be be arrested in the disappearance of her niece, an aspiring dancer who grew up in a Texas town and had just moved to New York.

"We are just continuing and continuing to pray that justice will be served sooner or later," she said.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/11/07/2009-11-07_sex_offender_suspected_in_womans_disappearance_get_3_years_in_jail_on_technicali.html

Pace forum to honor missing woman Garza
November 29, 2009

PLEASANTVILLE — Pace University will host an event Tuesday to raise awareness for safety in social scenes and to keep the name of Laura Garza fresh in people's minds.

Garza, a 25-year-old aspiring dancer, was living in Brooklyn at the time of her disappearance.

She has been missing since December 2008, when she met Michael Mele, a convicted sex offender, at a Manhattan nightclub.

She later left the club with Mele and was last seen in his company in Orange County, authorities have said.

Mele, who has been the prime suspect in Garza's disappearance, was designated a sex offender in March 2008, when found guilty of exposing himself and masturbating in front of women at the Palisades Center parking lot in West Nyack.

The incidents occurred in December 2006 and April 2007.

Twice in 2008, on Aug. 9 and Nov. 6, the 24-year-old was accused of identifying himself as Jacob Thomas and making appointments for full-body spray tans at a Clarkstown tanning salon.

Mele then requested a female attendant spray him while nude and is accused of masturbating as the attendant sprayed his back.

He was convicted of falsifying business records, two counts of public lewdness, and one count of harassment. He was sentenced to six years of probation.

After Garza's disappearance, a DNA match linked Mele to a 2005 incident at the Paramus Park mall in New Jersey. He was accused of public lewdness and exposure to a child younger than 13.

Mele is now serving one to three years in state prison for not reporting his Orange County address to police, a violation of his probation.

The Pace University event, a one-hour presentation called ”For the Good of Garza,“ will feature a slide show and an open discussion on safety by the university's psychology of civic engagement class.

The event's date was selected to coincide with the one-year anniversary of Garza's disappearance.

The class, which numbers about 20 students, will also discuss safety issues with members of Garza's family, who are traveling to the Westchester campus from Texas at the expense of Rockland County jeweler Barry Fixler.

Fixler has, in the past, made donations in attempts to help find Garza, including donating $1,000 to print missing-person fliers and offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to her recovery.

Thomas Nardi leads the psychology course and said that he and the students overwhelmingly selected Garza as the focus of their class project because they were touched by her story.

”We just don't want her name to be forgotten,“ he said. ”We want to keep it in the public's consciousness.“

The event begins at 12:30 p.m. in the Gottesman Room at the Kessel Student Center.
http://www.lohud.com/article/20091129/NEWS03/911290353/-1/newsfront/Pace-forum-to-honor-missing-woman-Garza

One year later, relatives wait for answers about Laura Garza's disappearance

Dec. 4, 2009

McALLEN — Laura Garza’s family is still waiting for answers.

A year after the 25-year-old went missing in New York City, relatives have yet to learn the details surrounding her disappearance, which garnered national media attention.

Garza, a former McAllen resident who moved to New York to pursue a dancing career, left a Manhattan nightclub on Dec. 3, 2008, accompanied by 23-year-old Michael Mele, a sex offender who has offered little information about his encounter with the young woman.

“We just want to know where she is,” said Garza’s aunt, Isela Villalobos. “We don’t know if he’s ever going to answer that question. So we’ve got to be patient and let the state police do its job.”

New York state investigators did not return a message left Thursday after office hours, but news media there have reported that police are awaiting the latest round of forensic test results to learn more about the night of Garza’s disappearance.

According to the Times Herald-Record, about 50 potential pieces of evidence are covered in the latest round.

Mele is serving a sentence of up to three years for failing to tell state authorities that he moved last year from his parents’ home in Newburgh, N.Y., to an apartment in Wallkill, N.Y.

Garza has yet to be found, but family members have little hope that she remains alive. Despite that, Villalobos said the family still talks about her as if she were alive.

“She lives in my heart,” the aunt said.

Villalobos’ biggest fear is that Mele will be released from jail before authorities have the chance to charge him in her niece’s apparent homicide. The man could be paroled as early as Christmas — if he is denied parole he could be held until 2011.

“We need to keep him where he’s at,” Villalobos said.

The family gathered Thursday evening at Our Lady of Guadalupe, 620 North Dunlap Ave., for a vigil and Mass to remember Garza’s disappearance.

Friends and family of the young woman embraced moments before the ceremony, some fighting back tears as they shared memories of Garza.

“We’re just trying to hold onto faith,” Villalobos said. “God willing, he’s going to hear our prayers.”
http://www.themonitor.com/articles/mcallen-33174-answers-one.html

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091206/NEWS/912060340/-1/news

Sex offender Michael Mele's demons remained hidden for years

By Steve Israel
Times Herald-Record
Posted: December 06, 2009 - 2:00 AM

At first, Michael Mele only revealed tiny glimpses of the monster lurking inside. In the halls of Newburgh Free Academy, kids gossiped about the suggestive phone calls the handsome kid with gelled hair made to certain girls. They whispered about the things "Mike" wanted other girls to do.

But by his senior year, the guy with the pop star good looks and a Mercedes-Benz sedan, who some girls found "charming" and "a perfect gentleman" began to expose even more of his dark side.

According to several former classmates, he left an anonymous note in a girl's car threatening a violent sexual act — a note that, when confronted, he explained away with characteristic look-you-in-the-eye sincerity.


Then, just three years after high school — in 2005 — Michael Mele could no longer control himself. In the next three years, he allegedly assaulted or masturbated in the presence of more than a dozen women and teens. (Examples listed)
<Snip>

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091221/NEWS/912210331

Mele up for parole hearing in 3rd week of January

By Oliver Mackson
Times Herald-Record
Posted: December 21, 2009 - 2:00 AM
FISHKILL — Michael Mele won't be home for Christmas or New Year's, but a state parole board could set him free by Groundhog Day.

The 24-year-old sex offender from Orange County is the most scrutinized person in the year-long investigation into the disappearance of 25-year-old Laura Garza of Brooklyn.

A spokeswoman for the state Division of Parole said Wednesday that Mele is scheduled for his first parole interview in the third week in January. He's serving one to three years in prison for failing to register a change of address with the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, which maintains New York's registry of sex offenders.

Because he was held in the Orange County Jail for 11 months before he was sentenced, Mele received credit for that time, which made him eligible for parole after about a month in prison.

He was also sentenced last month to two years and three months in the county jail for violating the terms of probation. He was placed on probation last year for accosting women in the Palisades Center Mall in Rockland County, exposing himself and, in two cases, ejaculating on his victims.

But the state Department of Correctional Services concluded that state Penal Law requires the probation-violation sentence to merge with the failure-to-register sentence.

The only way Mele could be forced to serve his county time separately is if his state sentence is stayed or vacated. That's unlikely because as part of his plea bargain, Mele gave up his right to appeal the state prison sentence.

He's being held at Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill, which is where he'll be interviewed by the parole board.

If Mele is denied parole, he'll be eligible again in December 2010.

State police and prosecutors are continuing to analyze lab evidence related to Garza's disappearance, but law-enforcement officials say no decision's been made on whether the case should be presented to a grand jury. Garza was seen leaving the Marquee nightclub in lower Manhattan with Mele on the morning of Dec. 3, 2008, and she hasn't been seen since.

omackson@th-record.com

http://www.1010wins.com/PICS--Woman-s-Body-Found-in-Pa--May-Be-Laura-Garza/6895615

Posted: Monday, 26 April 2010 1:15PM

Police Sources: Body Found in Pa. May Be Missing Brooklyn Woman

 
NEW YORK (1010 WINS)  -- The body of a young woman found near Scranton, Pa., may be that of a Brooklyn woman missing for more than a year, according to police sources.

The body was found in early April. Among the items recovered for forensic testing was a watch, according to sources.
(http://imgsrv.1010wins.com/image/wins/UserFiles/Image/garza_2.jpg)
Laura Garza, 25, was last seen on Dec. 3, 2008 leaving the Manhattan nightclub Marquee with registered sex offender Michael Mele.

Mele, 24, was the focus of the investigation into Garza's disappearance but was never charged. In the weeks after Garza vanished, police searched Mele's home and car looking for evidence.

He was forced to register as a sex offender after pleading guilty to charges of exposing himself and performing lewd acts at the Palisades Center.

He pleaded guilty in September 2009 to failing to report a change of address and is currently in jail.

A news conference is planned for Monday afternoon.
 

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100426/NEWS/100429723

State police: Body found near Scranton, Pa. is Laura Garza
By Oliver Mackson
Times Herald-Record
Published: 11:33 AM - 04/26/10
Last updated: 2:13 PM - 04/26/10
Special Report: The search for Laura Garza

The body of a young woman found near Scranton, Pa., is missing Brooklynite Laura Garza, state police confirmed today.

Police said DNA taken from the body matched that of Garza.
WNEP-TV reported that on April 11, some ATV riders discovered bones in a field in Olyphant, Pa., just north of Scranton. Pennsylvania state police confirmed the next day that the remains were of a female, and that they also found a men's chronograph watch near the body.

Garza, 25, disappeared in December 2008, after leaving the Manhattan nightclub Marquee with Michael Mele, a convicted sex offender from the Town of Wallkill. A massive search ensued, but her body was never found.

Mele is now serving a state prison sentence for failing to register an address change when he moved from his parents' home in the Town of Newburgh to an apartment in the Town of Wallkill, about six months before he met Garza. At the time, he was on probation for exposing himself to women and masturbating in public at the Palisades Center Mall in Rockland County.

Wow.....she's been found  ::MonkeyNoNo::

Body of Laura Garza, NY clubgoer missing since 2008, found in Pa.: police

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/04/26/2010-04-26_body_of_laura_garza_ny_clubgoer_missing_since_2008_found_in_pa_police.html

The body of Laura Garza, the young Brooklyn woman who disappeared after meeting a sex offender a club more than a year ago, has been found.

State Police in Middletown, N.Y., said Monday that DNA analysis confirmed a skeleton found April 11 in Mount Cobb, Pa., belongs to the 25-year-old dancer.

The bones were spotted by all-terrain vehicle riders.

The prime suspect in Garza's disappearance, serial molester Michael Mele, has been in jail for several months on unrelated charges.

He has not been charged in Garza's death and is not cooperating.

Security cameras captured Garza, who had recently moved from Texas to Bay Ridge, leaving Chelsea's Marquee club with Mele the morning of Dec. 3, 2008.

At the time, Mele, 24, the son of a retired MTA cop, was on probation for exposing himself and masturbating on women at a Rockland County mall in 2007 and 2008.

I'm so glad they found her body.

I wonder whose watch they found.

If it's not Michael Mele's I'm wondering if he planted it with her when he dumped her body.

I'm convinced he is the murderer.

I am convinced too San.  ::rhino::

RIP Laura, you can go home now.

Info from Porchlight...that came from WS

Look at her wrist >>>>>>.

(http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/12/02/alg_marquee_laura_garza.jpg)

now look at the watch found at the site of the remains
(http://www.strausnews.com/content/articles/2010/04/17/pike_county_courier/news/13.jpg)

Glad they found her

LE was on the right track when they were searching Rt 84 Middletown/Goshen area.  Too bad they didn't go further, past the northern tip of NJ and into PA....that's where Mt. Cobb & Scranton are. 

I, too, am glad she has been found.

RIP Laura...

Such a lovely girl with her whole life ahead of her... ::MonkeyNoNo::

http://wcbstv.com/local/laura.garza.missing.2.1658520.html
 Apr 27, 2010 8:07 am US/Eastern
With Body Found, Police Investigate Garza's Death
NEW YORK (CBS)
The search for Laura Garza ended tragically with the discovery of her skeletal remains. Now investigators will try to determine what led to her death.

For Garza's family, it was a bittersweet break in a heartbreaking case. DNA testing confirmed the remains found by teens riding ATVs in a wooded area near Scranton, Pennsylvania belonged to the 25-year-old aspiring dancer from Brooklyn.

"It's a sad day and a happy day for everyone, because at least now they have closure," said Awilda Cordero, Garza family spokeswoman.

The next step in this homicide case: figuring out how and when Garza died, and who's responsible. Police said forensic pathologists will begin that process by analyzing the remains.

"While there may be a sense of relief that we have a recovery, we certainly have a lot of work to do," said Capt. Wayne Olson of the New York State Police.

Investigators initiated the DNA analysis after finding a key clue at the scene in Scranton: a designer chronograph watch. Pennsylvania State Police checked a database of missing women and realized Garza wore the very same watch.
The big question: will any of this evidence connect Garza's death to the main suspect and registered sex offender Michele Mele?

Police said her body was found just 65-miles from Mele's apartment in Middletown.

Oh geeeeezeeeeeee :smt089  ::MonkeyNoNo::  ::MonkeyWaa::

Mom of slain NYC woman clung to phone for months 
Published: Tuesday, April 27, 2010 11:15 AM CDT

The mother of a long-missing Manhattan nightclub patron clung to her phone for 16 months after her daughter disappeared.

She turned it off for the first time on Friday after learning the skeletal remains found in Pennsylvania were her daughter's.

Relatives of Laura Garza recalled the horrible moment Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show from Mission, Texas. Isela Villalobos, of McAllen, Texas, said it was a "really sad moment" when Elizabeth Ezquivel turned her phone off. Ezquivel did not appear on the show.

Nicolas Garza, Laura's brother, said he was home alone when an investigator called him Friday afternoon with the news. He asked Villalobos and his girlfriend to come over. He didn't want to be alone when he gave his mother the news.

When Ezquivel arrived, they started crying.

"She couldn't believe it at that time," he said. "We all couldn't believe it. But they confirm that it's her."

Garza had moved to Brooklyn five months before she disappeared. The aspiring dancer left the nightclub on Dec. 3, 2008, with a registered sex offender, Michael Mele. He has been investigated but not charged in the case.

Mele is being held at a state prison in Marcy for an unrelated offense. A board denied him parole in March, citing his "history of sexually deviant behavior."

http://www.mywesttexas.com/articles/2010/04/27/ap-state-tx/ny_nightclub_disappearance.txt

 ::MonkeyNoNo::

Apr 27, 2010 4:48 pm US/Eastern
Prosecutor Says Missing NY Woman Not Killed In Pa.

MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. (AP) ― A prosecutor says the New York woman whose skeletal remains were found in Pennsylvania was apparently killed elsewhere.

Gene Talerico, first assistant district attorney in Lackawanna County, Pa., said Tuesday that means New York will have jurisdiction in the case of 25-year-old Laura Garza.

Garza disappeared in 2008 after leaving a Manhattan nightclub with a sex offender. Her remains were found last week near Scranton, Pa.

The sex offender, Michael Mele (MEE'-lee), has been investigated but not charged in the case. He is imprisoned on a parole violation and was denied release last month.

New York state police Capt. Wayne Olson said New York officials have been working on the assumption that Garza was killed in New York.

http://cbs3.com/wireapnewspa/Pa.prosecutor.says.2.1658797.html

4:27 PM EDT, April 27, 2010
Police Return to Field Where Remains Were Found

Investigators were back on the scene in Lackawanna County Tuesday where a woman's body was found.

After learning the identity of the woman, they are now searching for more evidence.

Dozens of officers were at the field in Olyphant where, two weeks ago, skeletal remains were found.

This time they know who the victim is and where she is from.

Police from Pennsylvania and New York State Police scoured Marshwood Road in Olyphant looking for more evidence surrounding the body that was found there.

"Now that the victim's identified, we felt it was important to look over the scene again to see if there was any evidence we might not have been able to see the first time around," explained Trooper Bill Satkowski of Pennsylvania State Police.

The victim is 25-year-old Laura Garza. New York police officers said she was seen leaving a Manhattan nightclub in December, 2008 with convicted sex offender Michael Mele of Orange County, New York. Police said he is a suspect in the case.

Garza's body was found on April 11 by some all terrain vehicle riders in a wooded area in Olyphant.

New York State police said once authorities in Pennsylvania didn't find any leads from local missing persons' reports, they contacted police in New York on April 13 which led them to Garza's case.

New York State Police are not releasing how her body got there.

Troopers were also searching the shoulder of Interstate 84 for any clues to how the New York woman ended up in Lackawanna County.

"New York State Police, Pennsylvania State Police, Olyphant Police Department are out here. There's approximately 60 officers searching the area. We have our helicopter in the air just giving everything a second look," Satkowski added.

New York State Police are handling this case. They are not saying what was found in Tuesday's search.

Any possible evidence that was collected will be taken back to New York state for forensics testing.
http://www.wnep.com/news/countybycounty/wnep-lacka-police-field-remains-investigation,0,4395973.story

http://www.themonitor.com/articles/remains-37927-former-resident.html
Prosecutor says former McAllen resident wasn't killed where remains were found
April 27, 2010

MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. — A prosecutor says a former McAllen resident whose skeletal remains were found in Pennsylvania was apparently killed elsewhere.

That means New York will have jurisdiction over the case of 25-year-old Laura Garza, said Gene Talerico, first assistant district attorney in Lackawanna County, Pa.

Garza had moved from McAllen to New York to pursue a dancing career but disappeared five months later, on Dec. 3, 2008, after leaving a Manhattan nightclub with a sex offender. Her body — “a nearly intact skeleton,” police said — was found last week near Scranton, Pa.

Talerico said Pennsylvania might have taken over the prosecution if the evidence suggested Garza was killed in that state and her body was found there. But he said that wasn't the case, and Pennsylvania authorities are preparing to turn over whatever information and material and evidence they have to authorities in New York.

The findings did not surprise New York State Police Capt. Wayne Olson, who said he has believed all along that Garza was killed in New York.

The sex offender, Michael Mele, has been investigated but not charged in the case. He is currently serving a sentence of up to three years for a parole violation after he failed to tell state authorities that he moved last year from his parents’ home in Newburgh, N.Y., to an apartment in Wallkill, N.Y. A board last month denied his release, citing his “history of sexually deviant behavior.”

Wallkill is about 100 miles from where Garza’s body was found. Both towns are near Interstate 84.

Orange County District Attorney Frank Phillips, whose jurisdiction includes Wallkill, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

A youngster with a group of all-terrain vehicle riders discovered Garza’s remains April 11 in Mount Cobb, Pa., in the northeastern part of the state, Olson said. A wristwatch was found with the body.

Olson said he and several New York and Pennsylvania officers were in Mount Cobb on Tuesday searching the scene for evidence. He would not say what, if anything, had been found.

The remains will be sent as soon as today to a lab in Albany for an autopsy that might determine a cause of death, Olson said.

Family members of the woman endured more than a year of uncertainty about Garza’s fate before finally learning Friday that the remains were those of their missing relative.

Cousin Isela Villalobos said on NBC's Today show Tuesday that Garza’s mother, Elizabeth Ezquivel, had clung to her phone for the 16 months her daughter was missing. Ezquivel didn’t turn it off until Friday, when police told the family that DNA proved the remains were Garza’s.

“We’re devastated,” Garza’s older brother, Ivan Garza, 34, said in Spanish on Tuesday as friends and family gathered at the family residence in McAllen to console Ezquivel and extend their condolences.

“(Our mother) was still hanging on to hope that Laura was still alive,” Ivan Garza said.

Brother Nicolas Garza, 28, described his sister as a beautiful young woman who loved music and had a “contagious joy.”

“It’s a relief to know that she isn’t suffering,” he said. “We’ll be together with her, sooner or later.”

Relatives plan to hold a memorial service for Laura Garza once prosecutors release her remains for cremation. Authorities are still investigating how she died.

____

http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/local-family-ties-of-killing-suspect-emerge-1.750805
Local family ties of killing suspect emerge
April 29, 2010

(http://thetimes-tribune.com/polopoly_fs/1.747178.1272342309!/image/1226118404.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_240/1226118404.jpg) Michael Mele is a suspect in the disappearance of Laura Garza, police say. Anyone who may have seen or had contact with Mr. Mele in or around Scranton is asked to contact New York State Police at 845-344-5300 or Pennsylvania State Police at 963-3156. (Courtesy of New York State Police)


(http://thetimes-tribune.com/polopoly_fs/1.750806.1272544155!/image/3134336983.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_240/3134336983.jpg)  Joe Mele


Michael Mele, a registered sex offender incarcerated in New York for a parole violation, is a suspect in the homicide of Laura Garza.

His brother, Joe Mele, a University of Scranton graduate, has pursued a career in ministry.

The contrast in the brothers' paths is striking as the New York State Police continue its investigation into the homicide of Ms. Garza, a 25-year-old New York woman seen with Michael Mele in December 2008 leaving a New York City club.

"People are so uniquely different at times, and in this case, it's a tragic difference," said the Very Rev. Thomas McLaughlin of the Church of St. Luke, Stroudsburg, said.

Joe Mele was a youth minister at the Church of St. Luke from March 2006 to July 2007 before eventually moving to St. John the Evangelist in Frederick, Md.

"It seemed he always wanted to do some church-related work," the Rev. McLaughlin said.

He said he prays for everyone involved in the investigation and described the situation as sad.

The Times Herald-Record in Middletown, N.Y., reported that Michael Mele, a registered sex offender, is serving a one- to three-year sentence for not notifying state authorities he moved from his parents home in Newburgh, N.Y., to an apartment in Wallkill, N.Y., in 2008.

Court documents state he had a record of convictions for sexual offenses.

Graduating with a bachelor's degree in counseling and human services from the University of Scranton in 2005, Joe Mele has led a life quite different from his brother. In 2007, he attended graduate school at the university and studied community counseling.

"There is no case connection to the University of Scranton," university spokesman Stan Zygmunt said. "The university did confirm to the New York State Police that the brother of the suspect did attend the university, but not at the time period relevant to the case."

Joe Mele served as a youth minister for several parishes in the area, including St. Patrick's Church in Scranton, eventually joining St. John the Evangelist. He could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

Working with Pennsylvania State Police, New York State Police on Monday identified human remains found April 11 along Marshwood Road in Olyphant as those of Ms. Garza.

"We anticipate an autopsy today by Dr. Michael Baden," New York State Police Capt. Wayne Olson said.

According to court documents:

Ms. Garza, a Texas native who moved to New York City in July 2008, was seen on a surveillance video leaving the Club Marquee on 10th Avenue in New York City on Dec. 3, 2008, around 4 a.m. with Michael Mele.

After leaving the club, Michael Mele and Ms. Garza traveled in his sport-utility vehicle with an unidentified man described by police as the "informant" to a McDonald's at the Newburgh Mall, arriving around 5 a.m. The "informant" then left Mr. Mele and Ms. Garza alone.

After Ms. Garza was missing for a day, a friend called the New York City Police Department. Police subsequently interviewed the "informant," who reported seeing Ms. Garza and Mr. Mele kiss.

State police have not identified where Ms. Garza died or how she ended up in Olyphant.

Michael Mele's attorney, Craig Brown, said his client is presumed innocent. He also said he hopes the Garza family can begin the grieving process.

http://www.wfmj.com/Global/story.asp?S=12392473
NY woman's remains sent back from Pennsylvania
April 28, 2010

MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. (AP) - Police say the remains of a Brooklyn woman, found last week in Pennsylvania after a 16-month search, have been sent to Albany for an autopsy.

State police Capt. Wayne Olson said Wednesday that investigators are hoping to learn the cause of Laura Garza's death.

The 25-year-old Garza vanished in 2008 after leaving a Manhattan nightclub with a sex offender. The offender, 24-year-old Michael Mele (MEE'-lee), has been investigated but not charged in Garza's death.

Her skeletal remains were found in a wooded area in Mount Cobb, Pa., about 80 miles west of where she was last seen.

Olson said the autopsy is to be conducted Thursday by Dr. Michael Baden, a well-known forensic pathologist who is a consultant to the state police.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100427/NEWS/4270323/-1/news
Timeline of Laura Garza case
April 27, 2010

Published: 2:00 AM - 04/27/10

Dec. 2, 2008: Michael Mele, a registered sex offender from the Town of Wallkill, heads down to Club Marquee on 10th Avenue in Manhattan, where he meets 25-year-old Laura Garza of Brooklyn.

Dec. 3, 2008: Garza and a man identified as Mele are seen on video surveillance leaving the club. Garza, Mele and a man identified in court papers only as an "informant" arrive at the McDonald's at the Newburgh Mall around 5:30 a.m.. The man, who was a passenger in Mele's Infiniti SUV, leaves and sees Garza and Mele "kissing and laughing."

Dec. 4, 2008: A friend of Laura Garza reports her missing to the NYPD.

    Dec. 5, 2008: Police and the informant go to Mele's apartment at the Regency Club in the Town of Wallkill and notice cuts of carpet missing. Mele turns himself in to Town of Newburgh police on a probation violation and is held at the Rockland County Jail.

Dec. 6, 2008: Police search Mele's apartment and car, as well as grassy areas along Interstate 84 between Newburgh and Middletown for clues about Garza's disappearance.

Dec. 9, 2008: Mele appears in Newburgh Town Court on charges of violating the terms of his probation. In 2007, Mele pleaded guilty to misdemeanor sex offenses for exposing himself and masturbating on women at the Palisades Center mall in Rockland County. Mele is sent to Orange County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Dec. 10, 2008: Garza's brothers, Ivan and Nicolas, come to Wallkill to join in the search. Mele's girlfriend, who lives in Bloomingburg, is interviewed by investigators.

Dec. 28, 2008: Ivan and Nicolas Garza stage a candlelight vigil outside Mele's apartment.

Dec. 31, 2008: Mele is indicted on felony charges of possession of stolen property. During a search of Mele's apartment, police discovered an American Express credit card and a Citibank debit card that had both been reported stolen.

Jan. 13, 2009: Mele waives his appearance in court on possession of stolen property charges, leaving the Garza family angry and disappointed. The Garza family goes to Mele's parents' home in the Town of Newburgh, where they tape a photo of Laura on the front door. No one is home at the time.

April 10, 2009: Authorities charge Mele with two new sex-related charges for allegedly exposing himself and masturbating in front of tanning- salon attendants in Rockland County.

June 15, 2009: An Orange County Court judge rules that the stolen credit and debit cards can't be used as evidence against Mele. Prosecutors are still awaiting a decision on their appeal.

Sept. 28, 2009: Mele pleads guilty to failing to register his new address in the Town of Wallkill after moving from his parents' home in the Town of Newburgh.

Nov. 5, 2009: Mele is sentenced to one to three years in state prison.

Feb. 3, 2010: Mele pleads guilty to a misdemeanor charge of falsifying business records in Clarkstown court to cover the tanning-salon charges. He receives no additional jail time.

March 19, 2010: Mele is denied parole and is transferred to a state prison further upstate. With good behavior, he could be home by Christmas.

April 26, 2010: State police announce that DNA tests show a body found on April 11 in Olyphant, Pa., is Laura Garza.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100429/NEWS/100429471
Pathologist begins examining Garza's remains; vigil planned in Manhattan Monday
April 29, 2010

ALBANY — One of America's most accomplished forensic pathologists on Thursday began studying the remains of Laura Garza, the 25-year-old Brooklyn woman whose remains were identified this week. The results won't be immedaitely available, and state police didn't have a timetable for when they'd be able to make the results public.

Dr. Michael Baden, a consultant to the state police and former chief New York City medical examiner, is conducting the autopsy at Albany Medical Center. The procedure will include toxicology tests for the presence of enzymes and other substances that could offer clues to the cause of her death.

Garza's skeletal remains, discovered April 11 near Scranton, Pa., were identified through a DNA match. She was last seen on Dec. 3, 2008, after she met Michael Mele of the Town of Wallkill in the Manhattan nightclub Marquee. Mele, who was on probation for misdemeanor sex offenses at the time, is now serving a state prison sentence for failing to register an address change with the state.
A Bronx activist, Awilda Cordero, said Thursday that she's organizing a prayer gathering in Garza's memory outside Marquee at 3 p.m. Monday. The club is at 289 10th Avenue, near the intersection of 27th Street.

This is so sad.  Even sadder is the fact that someone can go around masturbating on women and children and get virtually a slap on the wrist.  How many victims are out there who may be too embarrassed to report his crimes?  Women who are misguided and blame themselves, children who do not know what they witnessed.  There is one way to stop his ejaculation crimes, and they should use it.

I feel so badly for Laura's family and friends.  I hope their anger goes towards the perp and not towards themselves for not stopping her.  The blame goes to one person only and it is not her family or friends.

God bless Laura, her family, friends, and all who care about her.

(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j120/Bearlyhere/Monkey%20Emoticons/angel2-crying.gif)   



misspelling

Indict due in 2008 'club' slay

By DAVID K. LI
Last Updated: 4:16 AM, December 8, 2010
Posted: 3:23 AM, December 8, 2010

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/indict_due_in_club_slay_ewfPpBD5p5EQBdaoUcb67K#ixzz17Xf1F8W6

A registered sex offender, long suspected in the 2008 disappearance of Brooklyn beauty Laura Garza, is expected to be indicted today in connection with her death, according to a published report.

The Orange County District Attorney's Office is set to announce that Michael Mele, who has been in detectives' crosshairs since Garza disappeared in December 2008, will finally be charged, the Times Herald-Record newspaper of Middletown reported.

Garza, 25, vanished from the nightclub Marquee in Chelsea two years ago. Her remains were found last April near Scranton, Pa.

Investigators immediately zeroed in on Mele, who was spotted leaving Marquee with Garza.

Mele is currently serving time upstate.

Mele's lawyer could not be immediately reached for comment last night.

YESSSSSSSSSSS!!

Sex offender Michael Mele indicted in Laura Garza muder; last seen leaving Chelsea club with her
BY Oren Yaniv AND John Lauinger
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Originally Published:Wednesday, December 8th 2010, 2:42 PM

The sex offender last seen leaving a Chelsea nightclub with Laura Garza on the night of her 2008 disappearance has been indicted on a murder rap.

The eight-count indictment charges that Michael Mele, 25, "did cause the death of" Garza on Dec. 3, 2008, according to the indictment.

"This is what we were hoping for," said Garza's aunt, Isela Villalobos.

She said a representative from the office of Orange County District Attorney Francis Phillips notified the family of the indictment shortly after noon Wednesday.

"We are just thankful that the grand jury did their job and indicted him," Villalobos added. "Now we are going to wait to see if there is going to be a plea or a trial."

The indictment against Mele is headlined by a second-degree murder charge. But he was also charged with tampering with evidence because investigators allege he dumped Garza's body after the murder and then tossed out carpets from his apartment and a mat from his car.

Garza's body was found in a field near Scranton, Pa., in April following an intensive search in the countryside around Mele's apartment in upstate Wallkill.

The discovery - which represented the crucial break investigators in the case had been waiting for - came 16 months after the raven-haired beauty was last seen leaving club Marquee on 10th Ave. with Mele.

Garza, an aspiring dancer originally from Texas, had just moved to Brooklyn when she disappeared.

Mele, the son of a retired Metropolitan Transportation Authority cop, was on probation at the time following a conviction for exposing himself in front of women at a Rockland County mall.

He is currently serving a prison sentence for failing to register a change of address as a sex offender - information cops uncovered as they investigated Garza's disappearance.

He was due to be sprung from prison on Dec. 24.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/12/08/2010-12-08_sex_offender_michael_mele_indicted_in_laura_garza_muder_last_seen_leaving_chelse.html?r=news

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/12/08/2010-12-08_sex_offender_michael_mele_indicted_in_laura_garza_muder_last_seen_leaving_chelse.html

Sex offender Michael Mele indicted in Laura Garza murder; last seen leaving Chelsea club with her

BY Oren Yaniv AND John Lauinger
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Originally Published:Wednesday, December 8th 2010, 2:42 PM
Updated: Wednesday, December 8th 2010, 4:57 PM


The sex offender last seen leaving a Chelsea nightclub with Laura Garza on the night of her 2008 disappearance has been indicted on a murder rap.

The eight-count indictment charges that Michael Mele, 25, "did cause the death of" Garza on Dec. 3, 2008, according to the indictment.

"This is what we were hoping for," said Garza's aunt, Isela Villalobos.

She said a representative from the office of Orange County District Attorney Francis Phillips notified the family of the indictment shortly after noon Wednesday.

"We are just thankful that the grand jury did their job and indicted him," Villalobos added. "Now we are going to wait to see if there is going to be a plea or a trial."

The indictment against Mele is headlined by a second-degree murder charge. But he was also charged with tampering with evidence because investigators allege he dumped Garza's body after the murder and then tossed out carpets from his apartment and a mat from his car.

Garza's body was found in a field near Scranton, Pa., in April following an intensive search in the countryside around Mele's apartment in upstate Wallkill.

The discovery - which represented the crucial break investigators in the case had been waiting for - came 16 months after the raven-haired beauty was last seen leaving club Marquee on 10th Ave. with Mele.

Garza, an aspiring dancer originally from Texas, had just moved to Brooklyn when she disappeared.

Mele, the son of a retired Metropolitan Transportation Authority cop, was on probation at the time following a conviction for exposing himself in front of women at a Rockland County mall.

He is currently serving a prison sentence for failing to register a change of address as a sex offender - information cops uncovered as they investigated Garza's disappearance.

He was due to be sprung from prison on Dec. 24.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/12/08/2010-12-08_sex_offender_michael_mele_indicted_in_laura_garza_muder_last_seen_leaving_chelse.html#ixzz17ZxsF5DD

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/7337081.html

:roll:

Sex offender pleads not guilty in NY woman's death
By JIM FITZGERALD Associated Press © 2010 The Associated Press
Dec. 13, 2010, 12:05PM

GOSHEN, N.Y. — A sex offender pleaded not guilty Monday in the killing of an aspiring dancer who vanished two years ago after leaving a New York City nightclub with him, and his lawyer wants to get him out of prison on bail.

Michael Mele, 25, is charged with murder, manslaughter and evidence tampering in the death of Laura Garza, 25, who had moved from McAllen, Texas to New York five months before her disappearance. He could face 25 years to life in prison if he's convicted of murder.

Mele, wearing a green jail jumpsuit and a buzz cut, his hands cuffed in front of him and shackled to his waist, pleaded not guilty through his attorney, John Ingrassia, in Orange County Court. Prosecutors believe Garza was killed in Orange County, where Mele lived.

Ingrassia won permission from County Judge Nicholas De Rosa to file a bail application in writing. Mele is already jailed for violating his parole as a sex offender, but that sentence could end as soon as Dec. 24.

District Attorney Frank Phillips said outside court that prosecutors would oppose any bail request.

"In any murder case, there's always a flight risk," Phillips said. "Twenty-five to life is a great inducement."

He also said he would oppose any request to move the trial from Orange County because of heavy publicity.

"We've had many high-profile trials," he said.

Phillips said Mele, who was the prime suspect all along and never cooperated with the investigation, was "continuing to exercise his right to remain silent."

Garza had been missing since Dec. 3, 2008, when surveillance cameras showed her leaving the Manhattan nightspot Marquee with Mele. They were also seen a couple of hours later a few miles from Mele's home in Wallkill.

Mele had several sex-offense convictions in New York, most involving approaching women while masturbating, and he was wanted in New Jersey for similar crimes. He was denied release in March by a board that cited his "history of sexually deviant behavior."

The indictment says Mele hid carpet pieces, a car mat and Garza's body in an effort to keep them from becoming trial evidence. Police said patches of carpet in Mele's apartment had been cut away.

Garza's skeletal remains were found in April in the woods in Mount Cobb, Pa., after what Phillips called "the most intensive search mission I have ever seen."

As many as 200 firefighters, police officers and volunteers spent weeks searching for Garza in Orange and Sullivan counties. Officers looked through Mele's apartment complex, the woods and fields around it, septic systems and trash bins, and nearby roads. Divers went under the ice covering a lake.

Garza's brothers, Ivan and Nicolas, came east from Texas and posted "missing" signs with their sister's picture. When the search reached the one-month and one-year marks, they held vigils for her in Manhattan.

On April 11, 2010, a group of ATV riders found what police described as "an intact skeleton" several miles outside of Scranton, Pa. Police said a watch that Garza was wearing when she disappeared was found on the remains and DNA tests confirmed the identity.

The cause of her death has not been made public.

De Rosa set Mele's next court appearance for March 7, 2011.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/12/13/2010-12-13_laura_garza_murder_suspect_michael_mele_pleads_not_guilty_to_aspiring_dancers_20.html

Laura Garza murder suspect Michael Mele pleads not guilty to
aspiring dancer's 2008 death                                 
 BY John Lauinger
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, December 13th 2010, 1:28 PM
(http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2010/12/09/alg_laura_garza.jpg)
 HandoutLaura Garza was last seen leaving the Chelsea
nightclub Marquee in December 2008.

 The sex offender seen leaving a Chelsea night club
with Laura Garza on the night of her 2008
disappearance pleaded not guilty on Monday to
murdering her, a prosecutor said.

 Michael Mele, 25, was arraigned in an upstate court
on an indictment charging him with murder,
manslaughter and evidence tampering in the death
of the 25-year-old Texas transplant.

Orange County District Attorney Francis Phillips
would not say how Garza was slain.

"We're not going to disclose that at any point other
than in court at an appropriate time," he told the
Daily News.

Mele, the son of a retired Metropolitan
Transportation Authority cop, is currently
imprisoned on an unrelated sex charge. His earliest r
elease date is Dec. 24.

Phillips said his office has asked the court to hold
Mele without bail in the Orange County Jail if he is
sprung from prison.

Mele continues to refuse to cooperate with
authorities in the Garza case, the Associated Press
reported. Mele's lawyer, John Ingrassia, entered the
plea on his behalf and declined to comment to
reporters after the brief proceeding.

Garza, an aspiring dancer from McAllen, Tex., had
moved to Brooklyn only five months before her
fateful encounter with Mele in clubland.

Security cameras at Marquee on Tenth Ave. filmed
Garza leaving with Mele early on the morning of
Dec. 3, 2008.

State police investigators believe Mele took the
raven-haired beauty to his condo in upstate Wallkill
and murdered her.

As investigators probed Mele following Garza's
disappearance, they learned the convicted sex
offender failed to notify the state of a change of
address - a violation of state law that led a judge to
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 throw him in prison.

Despite an intensive search in the countryside near
Mele's home, the Garza case went cold until her
skeleton was found in  a Pennsylvania field in April
by people riding all-terrain vehicles.

Her remains were analyzed in a state crime lab in 
Albany, but Mele was not indicted by a grand jury
until last week.

"The investigation was extremely arduous. We
involved an extraordinary amount of resources,"
said Captain Joseph Tripodo, head of the state
police bureau investigating the case. "Getting the
indictment certainly brings the case to fruition for
us."

Phillips called the discovery of Garza's remains "a
substantial milestone," but he would not reveal
whether any new development in the case led to the
indictment.

"The case has been taking a long time to develop,
and we just wanted to go through it very
methodically," he said.

Mele was indicted on a count of evidence tampering
because investigators charge he dumped Garza's
body after the murder and also tossed out sections
of carpet from his condo and a mat from his car.

After Garza's remains were found, state police
combed Interstate 84 from Danbury, Conn., into
Pennsylvania, searching the highway's shoulders
and medians for evidence, Tripodo said.

He would not say whether any witnesses spotted
Mele in the area where Garza's body was dumped.

(http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2010/12/09/amd_michael_mele.jpg)

Hi 2NJSons_Mom  ::MonkeyWaa:: ::crymonkey2:: you were the last one to post here  ::justice2NJ::


Feb. 25,2011
News around the valley
 http://www.hvinsider.com/articles/around-the-valley-week-of-february-21-2011/

Town of Wallkill – 2 years after he death Laura Garzas family will finally be able to lay her to rest. A report has rules traumatic asphyxia as the cause of death of the 25 year old Garza. Michael Mele has been charged with murder in connection with her death.


@@find nothing of Trial date??

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120123/NEWS/120129901/-1/SITEMAP
Mele pleads guilty to manslaughter in death of Laura Garza
By Heather Yakin
Times Herald-Record
Published: 10:05 AM - 01/23/12
Last updated: 10:13 AM - 01/23/12
 ::snipping2::
In exchange for his guilty plea, Mele is expecting to get 23 years in prison.

Mele, 26, was charge with murder in Garza's death. Garza was seen early on Dec. 3, 2008, leaving a New York City nightclub with Mele and one of his friends.

Her skeletal remains were found April 11, 2010, in rural Olyphant, Pa.

Check back later this morning on recordonline.com for more information.

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/154670/trial-begins-upstate-for-man-accused-of-killing-brooklyn-woman
9:48 AM
Trial Begins Upstate For Man Accused Of Killing Brooklyn Woman
By: NY1 News

Video at link.
 ::snipping2::
Opening statements are scheduled for today in the case of a convicted sex offender accused of killing an aspiring dancer months after she moved to New York.

Michael Mele, 26, is being tried in Orange County.

He faces charges of murder, manslaughter, and evidence tampering in the death of Laura Garza, 25

23 years -- not much for taking a life, but I understand if the family was in agreement.

http://cbsnewyork.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/report-convicted-sex-offender-michael-mele-to-plead-guilty-to-killing-aspiring-brooklyn-dancer/
Convicted Sex Offender Michael Mele Admits Killing Aspiring Brooklyn Dancer
January 23, 2012 10:39 AM
 ::snipping2::
Mele, 26, decided to plead guilty to manslaughter and evidence tampering in the death of Laura Garza before the start of his murder trial at Orange County Court.

Mele had previously pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Mele confessed to suffocating Garza in his Wallkill apartment after she became upset when she learned he had a girlfriend. He said he put her body in a laundry basket after killing her, drove to Pennsylvania and dumped her remains in the woods.
 ::snipping2::

Sex-offender Michael Mele admits killing dancer Laura Garza just as his trial opens

Pleads guilty to manslaughter in deal with prosecutors, will serve 23 years

(http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1010387.1327335915!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/image.jpg)

Serial molester Michael Mele admitted Monday he suffocated aspiring dancer Laura Garza after picking her up at a Manhattan nightclub three years ago.

The stunning turn of events came just before the start of Mele’s murder trial in Orange County. In a deal with prosecutors, he copped a plea to manslaughter and will be sentenced to 23 years behind bars.

The deal angered Garza’s family.

"My daughter will be the same age as my sister when he gets out. That's not justice," said the victim’s brother, Ivan.

"He should have got life behind bars."

In court, Mele — a convicted sex offender — admitted he met Garza, 25, at the nightspot Marquee and took her back to his Wallkill apartment.

By his account, she spotted a picture of his girlfriend in a frame, an argument ensued, and he smothered her.

"I put my hand over her mouth and partially over her nose," he said.

"I realized something very bad happened."

 ::snipping2::

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/sex-offender-michael-mele-admits-killing-dancer-laura-garza-trial-opens-article-1.1010377#ixzz1kIpKK076

How many times have we all heard that line.

This guy is the scum of the Earth and he will on serve 23 years with his plea.  That is not enough time.  He will be let out and murder again.  He is a sociopath/psychopath.  When will people learn that people like him should never be allowed out in society.

He is a monster.

::rhino::

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120124/NEWS/120129880/-1/SITEMAP
PHOTOS: Laura Garza - Gone, but not forgotten
Published: 8:46 AM - 01/24/12
Last updated: 8:48 AM - 01/24/12

Predator’s chilling clues
Revealed: Secret photos & diary before he killed dancer

By LAUREL BABCOCK and DAN MANGAN
Last Updated: 3:58 AM, January 25, 2012

It was clear that it was only a matter of time.

Court evidence reveals how predator Michael Mele had been steadily sinking into a chilling sexual perversion — taking dozens of lewd photos of random women and increasingly engaging in dangerously deviant behavior — in the years leading up to his murder of aspiring Brooklyn dancer Laura Garza, The Post has learned.

The nearly 70 photos — which authorities found in a Jaguar that Mele reported stolen in November 2008 — just a month before he suffocated Garza — were of women “from behind, in parking lots and public places, [who] appear to have no idea their picture is being taken,” prosecutors wrote to an upstate judge in laying out their murder case against Mele.

“None capture the woman’s frontal face . . . [Mele] perceives women as an assembly of body parts and hair,” the prosecutors said.

They said they know the camera was Mele’s because photos of himself were included in the treasure trove of evidence. A video also found in the vehicle appears to show him “masturbating in his car in a public parking lot while looking at women,’’ the documents state.

The evidence — which lists 44 examples of perverted or suspicious behavior, some of which resulted in arrests of the 26-year-old Quiznos sandwich-shop owner — reveals how:

* In the month before Garza’s death on Dec. 3, 2008, Mele, the son of a retired MTA deputy police inspector, skipped three mandated sex-offender treatment meetings.

* One of Mele’s pals told authorities “that [Mele] got angry with women if they ignored him.”

* An unfinished “autobiography” found on Mele’s computer described his slide into sexual deviancy as beginning when he was just out of elementary school and discovered the Playboy Channel.

* He wrote in his journal that he was glad he had been busted for sexual offenses because “I could have wound up seriously hurting someone.’’

* Just hours before killing Garza, Mele had been warned about his “erratic behavior” by his sex-offender counselors — and they were possibly moving to jail him.

Mele pleaded guilty Monday to suffocating Garza in his Wallkill apartment after picking the Texas transplant up at a Chelsea club and getting angry when she discovered he had a girlfriend and demanded to go home. He faces 23 years in prison.

Prosecutors noted that Mele’s sex-treatment counselors had actually confronted him the day before Garza vanished about his missed therapy sessions and “requested to meet with his probation officer and parents,” the records show.

“Mele had led them to believe he lived with his parents,” prosecutors noted in one filing.

 ::snipping2::

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/predator_chilling_clues_7hO6QF3YE7OPsoANVZUSbN#ixzz1kSmkpRxG

Case Signal (BeanE) @CaseSignal  https://twitter.com/#!/CaseSignal (https://twitter.com/#!/CaseSignal)
Laura Garza - Court documents released regarding Michael Mele's past - #LauraGarza  (#post_LauraGarza)- YNN: bit.ly/AtBBW5 (http://bit.ly/AtBBW5)

http://hudsonvalley.ynn.com/content/top_stories/571441/court-documents-released-regarding-michael-mele-s-past/
Updated 01/25/2012 06:57 PM
Court documents released regarding Michael Mele's past
By: Beth Croughan
Video at link.
Michael Mele admitted to killing 25-year-old Laura Garza Monday while accepting a plea deal in the Orange County Court. Court documents ruled prejudicial by the judge have been made public. Our Beth Croughan has more on Mele's past, painted by his words and photographs. We want to warn you that some of the images and details you are about to see may be disturbing.

After watching the video clip, I have a hard time understanding why the judge felt some of the information had nothing to do with the current case at trial.  To me, it's an indicator he was becoming more violent and predatory particularly saying what he wanted to do beyond taking photos of women and etc., but really scarey is the part where one of his former gf's say he was choking her during sex and the other gf saying he wouldn't get off her.  Those things are ALL about power, or rather overpowering another, imo.   ::MonkeyNoNo::