BOSTON (AP) - Seven weeks of searching and hoping for their son's safe return dissolved into grief Wednesday for the parents of a Boston College student who said police pulled his remains from the water of a reservoir near the campus.
Priests prayed over 21-year-old chemistry major Franco Garcia before authorities placed his body inside a van at the edge of Chestnut Hill Reservoir.
"I found him," Jose Garcia said of his son, while weeping at his Newton home later Wednesday. "But not the way I want."
Garcia was last seen drinking with friends at a bar near campus early on Feb. 22. He had planned to stay the night at a friend's dorm but never showed. His car was parked where he left it, 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 that night.
Divers had repeatedly scoured the depths of the reservoir, in between campus and the bar, since he disappeared. Authorities never found a sign of him there until a man walking his dog reported seeing a body in the water Wednesday.
The family said police reported that the clothes on the body matched the description of what Garcia was wearing when he was last seen. Police also found the student's wallet in his pocket and recovered his eyeglasses, according to his family, though the district attorney said he couldn't confirm for certain that the body was Garcia's until authorities performed an autopsy.
Garcia's parents said police told them they will investigate whether their son died in an accident or if foul play was a factor. They said they hope authorities find that Garcia's death was an accident so they can have some closure as they grieve.
"This is not going to be over until we find the truth of what happened with him," Luzmila Garcia told The Associated Press. "The only thing I ask is to find the truth - what happened with Franco?"