Chestnut Hill Reservoir searched for Franco Garcia; missing BC student from Newton was last seen at Mary Ann’s bar
State Police experts used side-scan sonar to search the Chestnut Hill Reservoir today for a missing BC student. (Brian R. Ballou/Globe Staff)
State Police deployed divers and scanned the bottom of the Chestnut Hill Reservoir today using sonar, but found no sign of a missing Boston College student. The search was expected to resume Tuesday.
Franco Garcia, 21, was last seen five days ago by friends at Mary Ann’s, a bar frequented by BC students in Cleveland Circle, not far from the reservoir.
State Police specialists this morning boarded a small boat and dragged a side-scan sonar device through the water, which is 20 to 25 feet deep. The boat made circles in the water as divers stood on shore.
After three hours of sonar scans came up negative, two divers were towed underwater through one section of the pond, said State Police spokesman David Procopio. The divers were expected to continue their visual survey Tuesday.
Also today, a State Police helicopter flew over the scene; it, too, was unable to spot any sign of Garcia.
Garcia’s parents and friends visited the scene today, as well as a chaplain.
The State Police helicopter had also flown over the reservoir Sunday, officials said.
Family and friends of Garcia gathered near Mary Ann’s Sunday holding signs with photographs of the Newton native in hopes of raising awareness of the missing man’s plight.
Garcia lives with his parents in West Newton and has been taking three classes at BC, where he studies chemistry and plays clarinet in the symphony band and trombone in the marching band.
He is also a certified pharmacy technician at a CVS in Waltham.
Garcia was last seen early Wednesday at Mary Ann’s. A friend said Garcia left without saying goodbye, which was odd, but she assumed he had just gone home.
Garcia’s friends have been using a Facebook group, which accumulated more than 2,000 members since being created Friday night, and a Twitter hashtag, #FindFranco.
Garcia’s friends said they are encouraging anyone who was at Mary Ann’s the night Garcia disappeared to send photos or videos from that evening to [email protected].
Newton police are leading the investigation.
Globe correspondent Gal Tziperman Lotan and John R. Ellement of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
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