Student search widens to county
Monterey Herald 2/20/07
Marie-Julie Brissette, 24, known to colleagues as "MJ," is a student at CSU-Monterey Bay who was last seen at the school's gym around 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
University police chief Fred Hardee said Brissette's roommates went back to their room around 6 p.m. that day. When Brissette still had not arrived by morning, the roommates, described as her close friends, notified police.
"It was very much out of character" for her not to advise her friends of her whereabouts, Hardee said.
The Monterey County Sheriff's Office search and rescue unit sent 12 officers and two search dogs out early Monday to hunt for the missing student, Hardee said, to no avail.
The search began at 9:30 a.m. and lasted until 4 p.m., he said. Officers swept through an area extending westward from the university's campus to the ocean.
On Monday afternoon, university police lieutenants met to discuss further search plans.
Hardee said Brissette's disappearance appeared to have been voluntary, but he declined to elaborate further.
"There doesn't appear to be foul play," he said.
Brissette arrived at the school this semester from Quebec, CSUMB spokeswoman Joan Weiner said. On Sunday, university officials were in touch with her family in Canada, Weiner said.
By Monday afternoon, Hardee said that although the family had not yet scheduled a trip, they would likely do so soon.
Anyone who has seen Brissette or has information about her is asked to call the CSUMB Police Department at 655-0268. She is described by police as a 5-foot-5-inch blonde who speaks English with a French accent.
Hardee said late Monday his staff planned to resume searching this morning.