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Nicolas Leslie Search Update: Family Of 20-Year-Old UC Berkeley Student Missing After Nice Terrorist Attack Heads To France To Search For Him

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 06:05 PST, Jul 17, 2016

The family of Nicolas Leslie is rushing to Nice, France, in a frantic search for the 20-year-old UC Berkeley student who disappeared after the terrorist attack this week that left 84 people dead and dozens more with serious injuries.

Leslie had been studying abroad in France with a group from his school and was in the coastal city on Thursday when a man drove a truck for nearly one mile through a crowd of people gathered for a Bastille Day fireworks display, SFGate.com reported.

The attack was stopped when an unarmed member of the crowd jumped onto the truck and helped wrestle the attacker, allowing police to shoot and kill the terrorist. Officials later said that the man had to navigate around several roadblocks to reach the crowd and had the truck’s cab filled with weapons, indicating a high level of planning for the attack.

Family members of Nicolas Leslie have been unable to track down the college student in the days after the attack, and French officials are not releasing the names of those injured and being treated in hospitals, leading Leslie’s family to head to France in the hopes of finding him alive.

“We’re trying to get ourselves to France right now,” Nick’s father, Conrad Leslie, told SFGate.com on Sunday morning. “We’re going crazy.”

UC Berkeley officials said Nicolas Leslie was among 85 students who traveled to France as part of a program called “Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Europe.” Three other students from the program were injured in the attack, with one suffering a broken foot and two suffering broken legs. Two of the students have already been released from the hospital.

UC Berkeley officials said that 84 of the 85 students participating in the program have been identified. Only Leslie remains missing.

Family members said their search for Nicolas Leslie began shortly after reports of the massacre hit American media. They tried reaching his cell phone, the Los Angeles Times reported, but the calls didn’t go through. His mother, who is Italian, also asked friends and family who live in the area to check into hospitals, but so far, they have found no sign of Nicolas.

Nicolas Leslie is familiar with the area, family members said. He had traveled to Nice before and knew the city well, they said. He also speaks Italian and English.

Despite the lack of word at this point, family members are remaining hopeful that they will find Nicolas once they arrive in France.

“They are confident that Nicolas is well,” a family friend named Antonella told the Los Angeles Times. “He’s not in any of the list of the deceased so that’s comforting to them. They think that he might be in shock or just trapped some place and need the help of the police to get out.”

Many of Leslie’s friends are now joining the effort to find him. Several have posted messages on Facebook asking anyone with information to pass it along to family.

“Please help find my friend!! He was out with us last night before everything happened, and in the midst of all the chaos he was nowhere to be found,” noted a post from Erika Ho, who is involved in the school’s study abroad program. “We are all praying for the best but please help by sharing this post and spreading the hashtags!!”

There have already been two American confirmed dead in the Nice terrorist attack, U.S. State Department officials noted. ABC.net noted that 51-year-old Sean Copeland and his 11-year-old son, Brodie, were killed during a family vacation to Europe.

“They are so loved,” family members were quoted in a Texas newspaper (via ABC.net).

Despite the frustrations for his family, there are indications that Nicolas Leslie could still be found alive. His name has not been listed among the list of dead.

[Image via Leslie family]

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