Search Continues For UI Student Police So Far Don’T Suspect Foul Play; Theater Department Students Go Door-To-Door

Fri., Jan. 15, 1999

By Andrea Vogt andreav@spokesman.com

Friends and family continued to search for a missing University of Idaho drama student Thursday, despite no new police leads.

The hunt for the missing man turned up nothing.

William Hendrick, 25, has not been seen since leaving a back-to-school party early Sunday.

He had been drinking. His unlocked car was found in a downtown parking lot near the Moscow Hotel, with the keys in the center console. He did not pick up his financial aid Monday and failed to show up for play auditions he had been rehearsing and looking forward to.

Police do not suspect foul play, but some in the community fear Hendrick, who is gay, may have been the victim of a hate crime.

Friends who saw Hendrick last thought he may have gone to another party in the same apartment complex, but police ruled out that possibility after questioning residents.

More than two dozen UI theater department students went door-to-door in Moscow Thursday, asking people to check their outbuildings and property for Hendrick.

“We had about 50 people out there today,” said Hendrick’s partner, Jerry Schutz Jr.

Several Realtors sent out requests for agents to search vacant rentals and homes in the area.

Hendrick’s parents, both veterans of law enforcement, returned home to Lewiston late Thursday after the search.

Today, friends and family plan to focus their efforts in Whitman County along the Snake River. On Saturday, they’ll search Moscow Mountain, Schutz said.

“It’s kind of grasping at straws now,” he said.

Hendrick is described as a Nez Perce Indian, 5-feet-11, 160 pounds, with platinum-blond hair with an inch of dark roots. He was starting to grow a goatee and was last seen wearing black clothing.

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