The body of missing University of Vermont (UVM) student Michelle Gardner-Quinn was found on Oct. 13 on the side of a road in Richmond, Vt. about 15 miles east of UVM, according to an article by the Associated Press (AP).
Gardner-Quinn, a 21-year-old senior at UVM, was last seen around 2 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 7 walking with Brian Rooney, a 36-year-old from Richmond. She had been at her friend's birthday party and was walking back to campus when her cell phone battery died, the article said. She stopped Rooney to ask to use his cell phone.
According to a Tufts student, sophomore Cory Blodgett, who was visiting UVM the weekend that Gardner-Quinn disappeared, posters were up by 8 p.m. on Saturday night asking if people had seen her, but it wasn't considered too serious of a situation.
"At first, it was just like, 'Missing Girl,' 'Have you seen this girl?'" Blodgett said. "Nobody was really too scared about it."
He noticed a difference in both the amount of signs and the content of the signs that were put up on Sunday.
"The next day, the number of signs drastically increased," he said. "They were asking specific questions like, 'Have you seen this car?' and they were looking for her jewelry. That's when people started getting a little nervous."
Blodgett said that there was a sense of "heightened awareness" on campus, especially for girls. "They started walking around in groups," he said. "Even though they say they try to do that anyway."
"My friend's dad called her and was like, 'Just be careful when you're walking around ,because that guy is still out there.'"
The search for Gardner-Quinn by police, the F.B.I., and by volunteers from the university - many of them students - began that week.
It culminated with the discovery of the body and the arrest of Rooney, who allegedly has a history of sexual assault and molestation.
"Rooney, who was arrested Friday and charged with sexual assault and lewd or lascivious conduct with a child, has been named by Burlington police as a suspect in Gardner-Quinn's death, but he has not been charged with it," the AP article said.
- Sarah Butrymowicz
