Missing Philadelphia Student’s Keys Found: Shane Montgomery Lead Uncovered
A missing Philadelphia student’s keys have been found, as the search for Shane Montgomery continues. The 21-year-old college student’s disappearance has been a baffling one for investigators and the young man’s family, but the discovery of the keys will surely provide significant insight.
According to ABC News, the missing Philadelphia student’s keys were found Sunday in the Schuylkill River. Divers found Shane Montgomery’s keys near the river bank, the first solid clue in his disappearance since he went missing on Thanksgiving morning.
Shane’s uncle, Kevin Verbrugghe, says that the keys were discovered in the water and identified by them. Earlier searches had focused on a nearby canal, but the keys were found some distance away. Verbrugghe says that the puzzle of Shane’s disappearance is definitely not solved, but the keys do provide a piece of the puzzle.
No significant hints regarding Montgomery’s whereabouts have been uncovered since the night he went missing. As Philly notes, Shane went missing in the wee hours of Thanksgiving, after he left Kildare’s Irish Pub. He had been there with friends, but had been asked to leave after bumping into a table. He is said to have left alone, without incident. A cell tower near a CVS caught the last ping of Shane’s cellphone, about a mile away from the pub.
Few clues regarding Montgomery’s disappearance have been uncovered. However, surveillance video discovered a couple of weeks ago did reportedly show Montgomery walking toward a footpath by the Manayunk Canal shortly after he left the Pub. Video did not show him emerge again, and the search for the missing Philadelphia student has focused intensively on that area.
Sunday’s discovery of the missing Philadelphia student’s keys came via the Garden State Underwater Recovery Unit. They searched the Schuylkill River for about four-and-a-half hours on Sunday. Shane’s uncle, according to Fox News, confirmed the keys were Shane’s by trying them on the family’s house.
It seems the missing Philadelphia student’s keys were found in the water near a parking lot where Shane had been seen on surveillance video. No additional evidence has been found in that area as of yet. At this point, Montgomery’s family says they are just continuing to hope for more evidence to show up.
There has been a reward offered in the case of Montgomery’s disappearance, and it has now grown to $65,000. The family says that they don’t believe Shane was severely intoxicated, and they say that he is well-liked and did not have issues with depression.
At this point, the family continues to hope for good news regarding Shane Montgomery’s disappearance. Many suspect that the discovery of the missing Philadelphia student’s keys may provide searchers with a new search focus, and that there may be a heartbreaking outcome in this one.
[Image via KVOA]
