The body of the University of Minnesota student, who disappeared around the same time last fall as UW-Eau Claire junior Michael Noll, was recovered Thursday in the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.
Christopher Jenkins, 21, had been missing since leaving a Minneapolis bar Oct. 31. Two pedestrians spotted his body lodged in some logs beneath a bridge near a waterfall. A determination of the cause and manner of death are pending the completion of an autopsy and further investigation. Authorities do not believe foul play was involved.
Jenkins was one of four young people — three men and one woman — to disappear last fall within 170 miles of one another, all after leaving a bar or party. Relatives thought the cases might be linked, but authorities said they did not believe that.
Jenkins, Noll and Joshua Guimond, a 20-year-old student at St. John’s University (Minn.) have been missing since Nov. 9, are each shown on a billboard just off of I-94’s exit 59 to Eau Claire. The board’s “I-94 Corridor” reference relates to the men vanishing in cities along the interstate.
It’s difficult to say whether the recovery of Jenkins will affect the investigation of Noll’s disappearance, Eau Claire Police Lt. Brad Venaas said Friday. It will depend on what Minneapolis police find in their investigation, he said.
“We’re just kind of waiting for some more information,” said Venaas, who added that Eau Claire police notified Noll’s parents of Thursday’s discovery.
Noll disappeared Nov. 6 after leaving a Water Street bar around 11 p.m. The Rochester, Minn., native was last reported seen entering a woman’s home around 11:30 p.m. near his rental house, which is on the 1000 block of First Avenue. The woman told officials an intoxicated and disoriented man matching Noll’s description entered the home and left a cap.
Local officials continue to believe that Noll likely ended up in the Chippewa River, Venaas said. Dogs trained to find human remains led authorities in November to an area of the river near Noll’s home, but the searches all failed.
Nothing has changed much in the Noll investigation, Venaas said.
Once the weather warms up and the ice clears from the river, Venaas said he expects police and fire officials to discuss how to search for Noll. He said he thinks the fire department would survey the river by boat again.
The similarity of the cases created beliefs, mainly among some of the missing people’s families and friends, that they are connected.
“We’re assuming that they’re not,” Venaas said.
Eau Claire police, however, have not dismissed the possibility of them being connected, he said.
“Unfortunately, these things happen, they happen at the same time,” he said.
Guimond disappeared Nov. 9 after leaving a party around midnight. The other missing person from last fall is Erika Dalquist, a 21-year-old Brainerd, Minn., woman, who has been missing since leaving a bar Oct. 29.
The body of an 18-year-old Wisconsin native, who was attending the University of Notre Dame, was found Feb. 12 in a river near the Indiana college’s campus. Chad Sharon of Pelican Lake had been missing since Dec. 12 after leaving an off-campus party.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
