Rice University student has been missing since March 3rd.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: The Panama City Beach Police Department is denying that they ever suspected Rice University student Reny Jose of having drowned in the last 11 days since he went missing on March 3, according to a Rice University spokesperson.
In an email to The American Bazaar, Rice University’s Senior Director of News and Media Relations B.J. Almond said that the school’s police department has spoken with the Chief of Police in Panama City Beach, who “adamantly denies that he or anyone in his department has said they think Reny drowned.”
The statement is yet another twist in a case that has left the local community baffled, and Jose’s friends and family reeling for nearly two weeks now, praying for the talented engineering student’s safe return.
Related Story: Family of Reny Jose offers $15,000 reward for information, recovery of missing youth
On Thursday, The American Bazaar reported that police said Jose may have drowned while under the influence of LSD, which falls in line with early reports that said Jose’s friends told police he had taken LSD and made strange remarks about wanting to harm himself.
Jose was staying with friends in a two-story house on Front Beach Road in Panama City Beach, a beach town in northern Florida that has a shoreline on the Gulf Coast. Jose’s friends told investigators that they last saw him on March 3, Monday night around 7:00 PM, and police found Jose’s clothes and a few personal effects in a garbage can not far from the house they were renting.
The police were contacted that Jose was missing at around 11:30 AM Tuesday morning. According to the Daily Mail, one of the friends Jose was staying with told police that Jose had taken LSD the night he disappeared, and had also talked about harming himself. When search and rescue operations failed to locate Jose within the first couple of days, his family came to Panama City Beach to aid the search efforts, while his friends left to go back home.
The search effort orchestrated by local police has involved search teams on land, helicopter-based searches by air, and dive team efforts in the ocean along the coastline of Panama City Beach. According to local ABC affiliate WEAR-3, the latter was comprised of “a group of expert divers.”
Meanwhile, friends and family continue to hold vigils for the missing student, and spread the word about his disappearance. The “Find Reny Jose” Facebook page currently has over 6,200 supporters, and police have ruled out foul play as the cause of Jose going missing.
Jose is currently supposed to graduate with his class this May, holding a 4.0 GPA in mechanical engineering from one of the top universities in the country. Originally from New York, statements from friends and family paint the young man as a level-headed, straight-laced person by all accounts.
Those with any information about Jose’s potential whereabouts are encouraged to call the Bay County Sheriff’s Office at 747-4700 or Crime Stoppers at 785-TIPS.
1 Comment
FYI – His “friends” rented the vacation home from Saturday March 1st to Saturday March 8th. Their vacation was far from over when they decided to pack-up and leave on Tuesday March 4th (many students left before even speaking with officials). These 22 “friends” were so “devastated” that none of them
stayed to assist with search efforts, although they were scheduled to be in Panama City the entire week. With “friends” like these, who needs enemies?