Post by LadyBlue on Dec 7, 2007 6:20:06 GMT -5
The search for a University of Wisconsin at Green Bay student who had been missing since July 13 after a night of bowling and drinking with friends, may have ended at the bottom of the Fox River. The rental car that Mahalia Xiong was driving the night she disappeared was pulled from the River with the body of a woman still inside.
The disappearance of Xiong so close after the disappearance of another Wisconsin student, Kelly Nolan, had touched off concerns that a serial killer may be active in the area. In the end, the 21-year-old student leader may have been the victim of an alcohol-related traffic mishap.
On July 12, Mahalia Xiong and friends went bowling at Ashwaubenon Bowling Alley then decided to go together to the Timeout Sports Bar & Grill in Green Bay. Xiong rode with friends to the bar because she was driving a rental car while her car was being repaired.
The group left the bar and returned to the bowling alley around 2:30 and dropped off Xiong to get her car. She was last seen driving north on South Oneida Street toward her east-side Green Bay home, a route that would have taken her near the river.
Xiong tried to call her boyfriend at 2:32 a.m. but the call went unanswered and she left no voice message. No one had heard from her since. Over the next several days, police were puzzled that the vehicle she was driving had not been spotted.
Police Puzzled Car Was Not Spotted
"The car has to be somewhere," police Lt. Dave Wesely told reporters. "Someone must have seen it."
Early Thursday morning, a policeman spotted tire tracks leading toward the Fox River. Divers entered the water and found a vehicle, but the water was so murky they could not even determine the color of the car.
An industrial crane was used to lift the vehicle from the water. As the car came out of the river, it became obvious that it was the white 1996 Mercury Sable with the license plates TFD-715 that Xiong was driving when she disappeared.
Police later confirmed that a female body was inside the car. An autopsy is being conducted today to determine identity and cause of death. Friends and family members of Xiong were privately grieving Thursday night.
Xiong was a senior at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay and an officer in the university's Southeast Asian Student Union.
The disappearance of Xiong so close after the disappearance of another Wisconsin student, Kelly Nolan, had touched off concerns that a serial killer may be active in the area. In the end, the 21-year-old student leader may have been the victim of an alcohol-related traffic mishap.
On July 12, Mahalia Xiong and friends went bowling at Ashwaubenon Bowling Alley then decided to go together to the Timeout Sports Bar & Grill in Green Bay. Xiong rode with friends to the bar because she was driving a rental car while her car was being repaired.
The group left the bar and returned to the bowling alley around 2:30 and dropped off Xiong to get her car. She was last seen driving north on South Oneida Street toward her east-side Green Bay home, a route that would have taken her near the river.
Xiong tried to call her boyfriend at 2:32 a.m. but the call went unanswered and she left no voice message. No one had heard from her since. Over the next several days, police were puzzled that the vehicle she was driving had not been spotted.
Police Puzzled Car Was Not Spotted
"The car has to be somewhere," police Lt. Dave Wesely told reporters. "Someone must have seen it."
Early Thursday morning, a policeman spotted tire tracks leading toward the Fox River. Divers entered the water and found a vehicle, but the water was so murky they could not even determine the color of the car.
An industrial crane was used to lift the vehicle from the water. As the car came out of the river, it became obvious that it was the white 1996 Mercury Sable with the license plates TFD-715 that Xiong was driving when she disappeared.
Police later confirmed that a female body was inside the car. An autopsy is being conducted today to determine identity and cause of death. Friends and family members of Xiong were privately grieving Thursday night.
Xiong was a senior at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay and an officer in the university's Southeast Asian Student Union.