Search continues for missing St. Thomas student
(AP) - More than 100 St. Thomas University students, a sheriff's bloodhound and a State Patrol helicopter searched Monday for a St. Thomas student from Eveleth.
Students were looking in the St. Paul neighborhood along the Mississippi River where freshman Daniel Zamlen, 18, was last known to be.
St. Thomas University and St. Paul police asked searchers to stay off the river's steep bluffs. Below them the river was running high and dangerously fast.
"It's really slippery," said Jim Winterer, St. Thomas spokesman. "We don't want to compound the situation."
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Zamlen was last heard from early Sunday. He had been on the phone with a friend when he said, "Oh, my God. Where are you? Help." Then the phone went dead.
The search was particularly urgent because Zamlen is diabetic. He wears an insulin pump that, though automatic, requires some manual adjustments.
Zamlen is described as 6 feet tall and 175 pounds, with blue eyes and blond hair. He was last seen wearing blue jeans and a blue jacket.
Early Sunday, he had been drinking at a party on St. Clair Avenue in St. Paul when he became upset and left. Friends Anna Chappuis and Sarah Nelson haven't said what upset him.
"We didn't even know he was gone," said Nelson, 18, who learned Zamlen was near the river when he called her at about 2:20 a.m.
He was looking for a ride and gave her his location.
Chappuis, 20, was on the phone with Zamlen and on her way to pick him up when she said she heard him say those last words, just before his phone cut out.
Zamlen's father, Dale Zamlen, an electrician, said a school official called him about 8:30 a.m. Sunday with the news that his son was missing. The family immediately drove south from their home in Eveleth.
"I was down here as quick as I could from my house, and when we got here, we talked to the kids, and they were in tears, and I told them: 'You did the best that you could,'" Dale Zamlen said.
Dale Zamlen said his son knows better than to drink.
"We were unaware these types of things were going on," he said. "When he was in high school, he did everything - sport of the season, Eagle Scout. He's a good role model. He's a way-above average student."
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Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, http://www.twincities.com
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)