Missing since March 3rd, in Florida.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: As the investigation into the disappearance of Reny Jose approaches the end of its third full week, the family of the missing youth has offered a $15,000 cash reward for any information that leads to the recovery of Jose, wherever he may be.
Speaking to the Panama City News Herald earlier this week, Jose’s family implored the local community to do what they can to find the young man, calling the past two weeks “the most difficult weeks of [their] lives.”
The family has diligently set up social network awareness campaigns, handed out and posted flyers in the local area, and even held a candlelight vigil at their local Indian cultural center in upstate New York.
Jose was staying with friends in Panama City Beach, a beach town in northern Florida that has a shoreline on the Gulf Coast, when he went missing on Monday, March 3. His friends told investigators that they last saw him that night, around 7:00 PM, and police were contacted that Jose was missing at around 11:30 AM the following morning.
Investigators found Jose’s clothes, cell phone, and wallet in a garbage can not far from the house he was renting. 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.
Now, police and the local community have scoured the entire Panama City Beach area for over a week and a half, looking on land, by air, and in the water to find the missing 21 year-old. Jose is a senior at Rice University, from which he is set to graduate in May with a degree in mechanical engineering and a very strong academic resume.
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.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com