By Jim Scott
DNAinfo Senior Editor
MANHATTAN — The New York State police said a body found in Pennsylvania two weeks ago has been identified as Laura Garza, an aspiring young dancer from Brooklyn who went missing after leaving a Chelsea nightclub more than a year ago, according to several published reports.
Garza, 25, left the Marquee Club in Chelsea with 24-year-old Michael Mele on Dec. 3, 2008 and was last seen with him in Newburgh, N.Y., later that night.
Several ATV riders found skeletal remains on April 11 near Scranton, Penn., just an hour West of Mele's Walkill, N.Y., home, the Times Herald Record reported. The next day Pennsylvania police confirmed the remains were female. State police said DNA from the remains matched Garza's, the paper reported.
Police released a photo of a men's watch found along with the skeletal remains, WCBS-TV reported.
Mele, 24, had scratches on his neck and bite marks on his hands days after Garza's disappearance, but refused to be interviewed by investigators, authorities said at the time.
"Michael Mele has never been cooperative in this investigation," state police Capt. Wayne Olson told the Record.
Police did an extensive search of Mele's Walkill home and in wooded areas along Route 17 in Orange and Sullivan Counties. Mele was never charged with a crime in Garza's disappearance.
Mele is currently serving prison time after violating his parole in an unrelated incident. Mele was designated a Level 1 sex offender in March 2008, after he was found guilty of exposing himself and masturbating in front of women in a mall parking lot in West Nyack, N.Y.
Officials officials called off the search for Garza in Sullivan and Orange Counties last March.
After nearly two years, Garza's parents may finally be able to lay their daughter to rest.
