ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. (WWJ) -- As the multi-agency search for missing metro Detroit teenager Brendan Santo nears the end of its second week, his family is planning a vigil Saturday morning.
Santo’s family says there will be a community prayer gathering at 10 a.m. Saturday, in the football stadium at Rochester Adams High School, according to a post in the Facebook group “Bring Brendan Santo Home.”
A family member says they remain focused on searching for Santo, who was last seen shortly before midnight after leaving Yakeley Hall on Friday, Oct. 29 on the campus of Michigan State University. The 18-year-old Grand Valley State University student was visiting friends on campus that weekend when he disappeared.
His family says they may be organizing another search party in the area on Sunday, and have reached out to various media outlets, asking them to run Santo’s missing flyer.
The family has asked the university to show the flyer on the jumbotron during home sporting events.
Police in East Lansing have been searching for Santo for nearly two weeks and Inspector Chris Rozman, with the MSU Department of Public Safety told WWJ Thursday they are still following up on all tips they receive, even the ones he calls “speculative.”
“A lot of the tips are that Brendan was seen in a different location or somebody saw someone similar to him,” Rozman said. “We’ve received a lot of those kinds of tips, and those are the ones that we quickly follow up on and eliminate, just based on identifying the person who looks similar or reviewing footage from a different location.”
He tells WWJ authorities have not received any tips that have confirmed Santo was seen after 11:50 p.m. that night.
Investigators have spent a lot of time searching the Red Cedar River, which runs through campus, and Rozman says the river remains the focus of the investigation.
“We are considering all possibilities at this time, but the Red Cedar River does remain of particular interest to our search operation,” Rozman said.
He said the search of the river would be indicative of a recovery effort at this time, but he and other investigators “remain hopeful” that Santo could still be found alive.
Authorities have searched the areas near the river several times in the last two weeks, utilizing cadaver dogs, divers, drones and even a helicopter, but have found no signs of Santo.
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