MSU Police Say Divers Continue to Search for Brendan Santo’s Body

Michigan State University’s Police Department told ELi at 2:45 pm today that investigators have not found Brendan Santo’s body on campus and that the search continues for the missing 18-year-old Grand Valley State student, contrary to circulating rumors of a body being found.

“We continue our water search operation and the Oakland County Dive Team is currently on site with boats and divers in the water,” said Chris Rozman, Public Information Officer for MSU Police and Public Safety.

The Michigan State Police Marine Services Unit’s divers worked on Nov. 24 in the area where Santo was last seen.

An area of the Red Cedar River just west of Sparty and north of the MSU baseball stadium has remained a persistent area of focus for dive teams in recent days. The day before Thanksgiving, Michigan State Police dive teams were on the scene, and today the Oakland County dive team is working there.

That spot in the river is near MSU’s Yakeley Hall, where Santo was last seen on Friday, Oct. 29, after visiting friends just steps from East Lansing’s busy downtown. ELPD officers have joined other agencies in an intensive search for the young man.

Posters are up around East Lansing in an effort to find the missing eighteen-year-old.

ELi has received multiple reports that Santo was drinking with his friends before he went missing and that he may have therefore been disoriented. About that issue, Rozman told ELi, “We would refrain from commenting on Brendan’s level of intoxication the night he went missing.”

Missing person posters are up all over campus and around town, including on a fence post near where divers are now searching. Many East Lansing addresses have received postal versions of the same missing person flyer. Some residents have posted signs in their own front yards in sympathy with the Santo family.

MSU Vice President and University Spokesperson Emily Gerkin Guerrant told ELi today, “Parenting is hard right now with all of the traumatic events happening, and we continue to keep the Santo family in our thoughts.”

Many East Lansing residences have received this mailed version of the missing-person notice.

Police have said they have no reason to suspect foul play in the disappearance.

Santo is described as 5 feet, 10 inches tall, weighing 160 pounds, and was last seen wearing gray sweatpants, a black t-shirt, a black baseball hat, and white Converse high-top shoes.

Anyone with any information is asked to call MSUPD at 844-99-MSUPD or to email tips@police.msu.edu.

Note: Guerrant’s comment was received after initial publication and added to this article at 5:30 p.m.