Boston College Student Found in Reservoir

Luzmila Garcia, center, is consoled after the body of her missing son, Boston College student Franco Garcia, was recovered at Chestnut Hill Reservoir in Boston, Wednesday, April 11, 2012. Franco Garcia disappeared Feb. 22 after leaving a popular bar near the college. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Boston – For weeks, dozens of Bostonians held a vigil for a 21-year-old Boston College student who went to a bar with some friends and then vanished.

Now police say divers may have found the chemistry student, Franco García, in a reservoir near campus. The Chestnut Hill Reservoir had been searched several times since García disappeared but divers previously failed to find his body.

Authorities have not performed an autopsy, but say the body fits García’s description, and it was wearing the same clothing García was wearing the night he disappeared, police told The Boston Globe. García disappeared Feb. 22 after leaving a bar popular with college students.

The reservoir is between the neighborhood the bar is in and the Boston College campus, where García planned to stay in a friend's dorm the night he went missing.

García, who played clarinet in the school's symphony band, was "a wonderful kid," his mother, Luzmila García, told the AP. Speaking through tears, she said she couldn't comment further and wanted only to be with family.

Authorities have not yet said whether they suspect foul play.

García had gone to the college hangout Mary Ann's with friends from Boston College's Symphonic Band but spent part of the night with friends from high school he met inside.

At closing time, his college friends couldn't find him. Police got involved a day later, when his parents returned in a panic from a vacation to New York City after not being able to reach him. His Volvo station wagon was parked where he left it, his clarinet inside. There was no new activity on his credit card and no one had used his cellphone since it pinged off a tower near the reservoir at 1:15 a.m.

The case drew the attention of singer Bruce Springsteen, whose son attends Boston College. He posted a missing person poster on both Twitter and Facebook.

García lived at home in Newton with his parents, Luzmila and José, who emigrated more than two decades ago from Lima, Peru, where worried relatives have been following the case. In addition to taking classes, he worked full-time as a pharmacy technician at CVS.

Based on reporting by The Associated Press.