Thursday, 4:30 PM
Police report 'helpful turns' in search for missing student
Burlington police today released still video images of Michelle Gardner-Quinn walking with a man on Main Street at about 2:34 a.m. on Saturday. The University of Vermont student has not been seen since.
By Suzanne Smalley, Globe Staff
BURLINGTON, Vt. -- Police said today that a man last seen with a missing University of Vermont student has emerged as "a significant focus" of the investigation into her disappearance.
Police declined to name the man and said in a statement they are not "indicating that he is a suspect specifically at this time." They said they have talked to the man.
But they released still video images of Michelle Gardner-Quinn walking with the man on Main Street at about 2:34 a.m. Saturday, said she had used the man's cellphone, and urged anyone who saw them together to call investigators immediately.
Police said search teams are looking today in Oakledge Park and North Beach Park along the shore of Lake Champlain.
Earlier today, State Police and volunteers from the university searched the Route 15 corridor in Jericho and Richmond, a bedroom community about 15 miles from Burlington. On Tuesday, police searched a house in Richmond, which they said is "related" to the man who last seen with Gardner-Quinn.
On Wednesday, police said they were working on the assumption that Gardner-Quinn, a 21-year-old senior from Arlington, Va., had been abducted and was still alive.
