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Body found in reservoir likely missing BC student, officials say

Authorities recovered a body believed to be that of missing Boston College student Franco Garcia from the Chestnut Hill Reservoir on Wednesday morning, officials said.

The body of missing Boston College student Franco Garcia, was pulled from the Chestnut Hill Reservoir by recovery personnel on Wednesday. Courtesy of Suzanne Kreiter/Globe staff

“Based on clothing and certain items—as well as the general height, build, description—all of it is consistent with Mr. Garcia,” said Jake Wark, spokesman for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office.

He added that although “we believe the body we found this morning is very likely that of Mr. Garcia . . . a positive ID has not yet been made.”

After a passerby Wednesday morning saw an object in the water and called 911 at about 8 a.m., representatives from the Massachusetts State Police, Boston Police Department, Boston Fire Department, Boston emergency medical services and other agencies arrived “to begin the work of documenting the discovery and recovering the body from the water,” Wark said.

Medical examiners will conduct an autopsy of the remains as part of a death investigation into what had been a missing persons case, he said.

Garcia, a 21-year-old Newton resident, went missing late February, after spending a night with friends at a bar in Cleveland Circle, according to a BC press release.

Wark said Garcia was last spotted in that area alone in the “early morning hours” of Feb. 22. Police conducted several investigations immediately thereafter and intermittently in March.

Those searches involved several dives into the reservoir, including a four-day reservoir search conducted by state police two weeks ago.

“It’s possible that [the original divers] missed the remains, and it’s possible that any other dive team under any other circumstances would have missed them as well,” Wark said.

The area the body was found in “was very murky and very dense with . . . aquatic vegetation,” he said.

Priests from BC traveled to the scene Wednesday morning to pray and meet with family members, according to the BC press release.

His parents, who stood on the shore with other families after the body had been pulled from the water, said they believed the body was their son’s, according to the Boston Globe.

“The University extends our deepest condolences and most heartfelt sympathies to Luzmila and Jose Garcia and Franco’s friends and classmates who are grieving at this time,” said BC spokesman Jack Dunn in a statement sent to The Daily Free Press. “We offer our prayers to the extended Garcia family in Massachusetts and Peru and join them in mourning the apparent loss of this accomplished young man.”

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