Police are continuing to search for two MSU students who traveled to Massachusetts for a vacation more than 11 days ago but never returned.
Officers involved in the investigation have only a handful of clues and say the search is nothing short of "frustrating."
Justin Gouveia, 21, and Danela Alfaro-Lopez, 19, who are dating, booked two nights at a bed and breakfast on Cape Cod, Mass., but left after only one night. Reservations were made through a travel agency nearly two months ago.
There has been no reported activity on either students' credit cards or cell phones.
"This case is very strange. It's not a common missing persons case," Yarmouthport police Lt. Steven Xiarhos said. "For them not to speak to either parents or anyone for the past 10 days has made us concerned."
Alfaro-Lopez, a sophomore, flew out from Detroit to meet Gouveia, a senior, in Massachusetts on July 25. The couple, both political science and pre-law students, were planning to meet up with Gouveia's parents on July 27 to travel to Maine, but the students never showed up, said Leanne Gouveia, Justin Gouveia's mother.
"I am at a loss for words now," Leanne Gouveia said. "They are both responsible kids, and it's unlike him or her not to call."
Her son transferred to MSU two years ago from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
The students arrived at the four-bedroom Blueberry Manor in Yarmouthport, Mass., at 2 p.m. on July 25, and were last seen by one of the innkeepers the next morning as they drove off just before 7 a.m.
The students were not acting suspicious, but did do some things a little out-of-the-ordinary, said Blueberry Manor owner Victoria Schuh.
The couple left the inn only a few hours after checking in and drove about an hour and 15 minutes back to Boston for a Red Sox and New York Yankees baseball game, returning around midnight, Schuh said.
Schuh and her husband, Jerry Rosen, had just finished watching the game and Rosen said he wondered why the students would drive all that way only to leave during the seventh inning.
Gouveia asked Rosen if any money was owed on the room and was told the couple still had a room tax, due upon checkout.
"She seemed a little quiet. He did most of the talking," Rosen said. "In retrospect, he probably knew he was going to leave early."
While baking pastries for breakfast in the kitchen the following morning, Schuh said she was puzzled when the students drove off before 7 a.m. without checking out.
"I thought, 'Maybe I should ask if they were staying for breakfast,' but I had a feeling they weren't," Schuh said. "I had a feeling I could not have caught them. Now I'm really sorry I didn't stop them."
Later that day, Schuh and Rosen found the couple's room in order, with the room key, a local map and the $30 room tax left neatly on the bed.
Both sets of parents became concerned and contacted each other before reporting their children missing, said Sgt. John Chirkun of Wayne County Sheriff's Office.
More than five local and state police departments, including Massachusetts State Police and the Wayne County Sheriff's Office, have joined the search.
Gouveia, of Lowell, Mass., was reported missing to the Lowell Police Department on Sunday. Alfaro-Lopez, of Dearborn, was reported missing on Thursday.
Attempting to call her son, Leanne Gouveia said she has been unsuccessful, only reaching his voice mail.
Alfaro-Lopez was supposed to meet her family at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Sunday afternoon, but she did not return home on the plane.
Alfaro-Lopez's family members could not be reached for comment.
Police have suggested to the parents that the pair might have eloped, but Leanne Gouveia said the students would have called anyway.
"They would have called and said, 'Yeah, we're okay, and we'll talk about it when we get home,'' she said. "I wish it were that simple."
Police from Lowell and Wayne County have been accessing the students' MSU and America Online e-mail accounts and have visited Web sites the students have previously viewed in an attempt to open any doors.
"We still have a few leads that we're following up on," Chirkun said. "We're taking this very seriously now that we feel it's possible that a crime has been committed."
When Alfaro-Lopez missed her flight home, the case shifted from a missing persons search to possible foul play or accident, Chirkun said.
State police throughout New England have been notified with the description and plate numbers of Gouveia's vehicle to assist local authorities in locating the students.
University spokesman Terry Denbow said MSU's Department of Police and Public Safety is working with the Wayne County Sheriff's Department as needed.
Studio art senior Courtney Wolf, who lived next door to Alfaro-Lopez in Williams Hall during the last school year, remembers her neighbor's sense of humor.
"She seemed really outspoken, almost like a comedian would have been on stage," she said.
While Wolf said she wasn't close friends with Alfaro-Lopez, she said she saw the couple often and described them as "close and cute."
"It seemed like a good relationship, at least from the outside," Wolf said. "I just always thought that they were both really cute together."
Sarah Frank can be reached at franksa2@msu.edu.
