UCLA Student Missing; Police Seek Leads

UCLA police on Wednesday asked the public to help locate a UCLA freshman who mysteriously disappeared from his dorm room Friday, leaving behind his wallet, jacket and possibly his shoes.

Michael Negrete, 18, of San Diego, logged off his computer at 3:40 a.m. Friday while his roommate was asleep and hasn’t been seen or heard from since, campus officials said.

“We’ve searched door to door, talked to his friends,” said Nancy Greenstein, a campus police spokeswoman. “He doesn’t seem to have a girlfriend. We have no hints of where he could go or where he might be. That’s why we’re asking the public for assistance.”

It’s not unusual for a college student to disappear over a weekend. So the search did not get underway until Monday, when Negrete’s friends and parents contacted campus police.

Mary Negrete, the freshman’s mother, said it would be out of character for her son to vanish.

“He’s usually quite aware of his schedule and things that he has to do,” she said.

In the past five days, Negrete, a music major and jazz trumpet player, has missed practice with a brass quintet on campus and a gig with his steel drum band in Mission Viejo.

“This is a complete shock to me,” Mary Negrete said. Typically, she said, he would be worried about missing any exams.

Negrete, who is 5-feet-8, 130 pounds with short-cropped black hair, was wearing short khaki pants and a plaid shirt when last seen playing a computer game in his 6th floor room in Dykstra Hall on the UCLA campus.

Anyone who has seen him since is asked to called UCLA police at (310) 825-1491.