Search for 2 missing students costly, police say

LOWELL, Mass. – The two-week search for two missing college students, who were found Saturday at a Florida hotel, cost the Lowell Police Department thousands of dollars and reduced efforts to solve a suspicious fatal fire and a homicide, police said.

Justin Gouveia, 21, of Lowell and his girlfriend, Daniela Alfaro-Lopez, 19, of Dearborn, Mich., left a Cape Cod bed and breakfast July 26 and were expected to join Gouveia’s family in Maine the next day.

They never arrived in Maine and didn’t contact family and friends for two weeks, prompting a search that drew nationwide attention.

But on Saturday, the two Michigan State University students were located at an Orlando-area hotel. Gouveia called his father to say he was fine, but offered little explanation for the Florida trip.

Lowell police Superintendent Edward Davis said the department assigned two detectives to work the case full time from Yarmouth, the Cape town where the couple was last seen, and incurred regular salary, overtime and rental costs. Davis didn’t specify a total cost to the department, except to say it was in the “thousands.”

Meanwhile, a suspicious Lowell house fire killed one person on Aug. 7. Lowell police are also investigating a mid-July homicide.

“It took resources away from these other priorities, which is really a problem from my perspective,” Davis told The Boston Globe.

Davis said now that the couple has been found, they should explain what happened. Davis said one possible reason the couple left is because Alfaro-Lopez may have flunked out of school and hadn’t told her parents.

Officials at Michigan State wouldn’t comment on Alfaro-Lopez’s academic record.

Law enforcement officials in Massachusetts and Michigan have said the couple won’t face charges.