George Delany Jr.

Posted Mar 17, 2011 @ 09:43 AM
Wayland, N.Y. —

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State police are still continuing the search for missing Rochester Institute of Technology student George Delaney Jr.

Delaney, 21, of Frederick, Md., was last seen Saturday, when he left a residence he shares with several other students in Chili, saying he would return shortly. Delaney’s vehicle was found Sunday on Ward Road in Wayland, Steuben County.

Police are treating the matter as a missing persons incident and have no reason to believe it might be more serious, said State Police Lt. Rick Oyer.

Delaney’s mother said her son was stressed out by school but would never just disappear like this.

“It was a surprise. He’s been stressing out a bit, you know, the usual student stress at college. But he seemed to be doing fine,” Susan Delaney said from her home in Maryland. “We think that maybe he decided to take a break and just head home because where his car was found is on the way home here. That’s the only thing I can speculate on.”

There was no evidence Delaney had been in an accident, but he had driven off the road where his car was found. A couple drove by Saturday and saw a man by the vehicle. The couple stopped to see if the man needed any help, and he declined.

When shown Delaney’s picture, the couple thought the man looked like Delaney, but weren’t positive.

Another witness saw a white Ford Escape trying to pull Delaney’s vehicle out of the ditch Saturday night.

Several hours later, the same witness saw the vehicle there, but the Ford Escape was gone. Police are interested in speaking with the driver of the Ford, said Oyer.

Officers are attempting to rule out Delaney’s location in the areas surrounding his vehicle, including the area near County Route 92 where Delaney’s cell phone was last used, said Oyer.

Anyone with information can call the Wayland  state police office at (585) 398-4100.

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11:02 PM, Mar. 28, 2011

As a dad, I worry every day about George Delany, the 21-year-old junior political science major at Rochester Institute of Technology who has been missing since March 12.

When I see George's picture, I see the faces of my own boys. As soon as our children can walk, we tell them every day to stay close, not to go with strangers, to call if something unexpected comes up. As they get older we loosen the reins a bit, but until they are completely on their own, we expect them to keep us posted.

When kids go off to college, on the threshold of adulthood, they often do things their parents would object to, or at least worry about. A road trip to Cleveland or Boston in the middle of winter with a bunch of guys in a 15-year-old car I wouldn't trust on a trip to Geneseo is not unheard of. And I would just as soon not hear about it, until it's over and everyone is home safely.

All of our parental lives we tell our kids never to take off without checking in. But when a child just disappears, the best hope a parent has is that he took off without checking in — that he deliberately made himself invisible to get away from whatever needs getting away from.

We know nothing of what happened to George Delany. As a dad, few things are scarier than not knowing how to find one of my kids.

We've seen this before. Four years ago, 20-year-old Brian Sullivan of Chili bought some food from the drive-thru window at a Gates Burger King. Later that day, his 1995 red Pontiac Sunfire was found nearby, his bank card and cellphone charger inside. His family hasn't seen him since.

Two years ago, then 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel, also of Chili, was caught on security video leaving her hotel during spring break in Myrtle Beach. Many searches later, she is still missing.

There have been others, too many others.

George Delany told his roommates on March 12 that he'd be right back. Witnesses have said later on that day they saw the young man in Wayland, Steuben County, where his car was stuck in the mud on a logging road. He told them he didn't need help, that he knew someone in the area. Last week, State Police, firefighters, sheriff's deputies and others combed 250 acres near where the car was found. They found nothing.

His parents, Susan and George, have returned to their Maryland home, in hopes he will call, or text, or walk in the front door.

As a dad, I don't want to think about it. But I can't help myself.

I don't know what the Delanys are going through, But I can imagine. A son slips into the mist of time, his disappearance a mystery. The parents are left with the clear memory of his first breath in the delivery room, the nights he climbed into bed so that Mom and Dad would keep him safe, the first time he was hit by a pitch, the first report card, the year he wore the homemade SpongeBob Halloween costume, the rock band practices in the garage, high school graduation day.

Without him, there is emptiness, the feeling that there is nothing left to do, nowhere else to look.

But there is also hope — hope that whatever has happened, he is on his way home.

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Cohocton, N.Y. —
Authorities have positively identified the body found Sunday in Cohocton as those of missing college student George Delany.

Two hikers reported finding Delany's body around 6:45 p.m. Sunday in a wooded area near Campbell Road and Oil Well Hollow Road, approximately two miles east of where Delany's car was found March 13.

Delany, 21, a Rochester Institute of Technology student from Frederick, Md., has been missing since leaving his off-campus residence March 12.
He told his roommates he would return soon.
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Body of missing student found; No foul play suspected
Zoom

Posted Apr 19, 2011 @ 12:11 AM
Cohocton, N.Y. —
Foul play is not suspected in the death of a Rochester Institute of Technology student, troopers said Monday.

The body of George Delany was found by hikers Sunday evening two to three miles east of where his car was left on a snowmobile trail off Ward Road in the neighboring Town of Wayland.

Delany, 21, had been missing since March 15. He was last seen March 12.

Autopsy results are expected to be released today.

Delany’s father, also named George, told the Frederick News Post state police said his son died of hypothermia. The Delanys live in Frederick, Md.

The body was found in a shallow hallow next to a logging road, and with it was an orange plastic toolbox holding personal effects, state police said at a news conference Monday morning at the Wayland trooper barracks.

Two hikers looking for deer antlers instead found the body Sunday evening in a wooded area off Campbell Road and Oil Well Hollow Road in the Town of Cohocton.

State police Sgt. Richard Bates said they hadn’t searched the area.

“We had no reason to think he was over that way,” Bates said.

Instead the search was focused closer to County Route 92, where Delany last used his cell phone.

The discovery ends a month-long search led by state police with help from numerous local agencies.

Previously, police said Delany had a history of wandering off to be on his own for stretches of time, but people were always aware of his location.

State police Lt. Rick Oyer said previously stress was usually a factor.

State police have said Delany was having “difficulties” at school and the on-campus coffee shop where he worked. The third-year political science major was described as highly emotional in the time before he disappeared.

Police are unsure why Delany was in the Way-land area. He shared a residence with other students in the Town of Chili. According to Susan Delany, his mother, he didn’t have contacts in the Wayland area.

He gave no indication of going anywhere March 12, when Susan Delany last spoke with her son.

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Raine, so much for keeping up on these cases. It's unfortunate that we have so many missing people to report on.

I've learned that Google Alerts are a Huge help in keeping current on these cases but sometimes, they slip through the cracks. Thank you So Much for taking the time to go back and report the latest. Unfortunately, this was not the outcome we hoped for.

I have google alerts for tons of people but not on the ones I back-tracked today. I know sometimes the google alerts will once in a while fail.
This outcome is so sad!

Yes, it is. Sounds like he was troubled as well.

I agree about the Google Alerts but it's the only way I know to keep up on the cases..and there are so many.

Adjunct R.I.T. faculty member Paloma Capanna reads a letter from the DeLany family at the memorial service for George DeLany Tuesday.

Rochester —
“We will find you — don’t lose hope.” “I personally don’t know you, but please come back soon.” “Strangers are praying — come home.”
Those pleas are just three of hundreds written on a banner for George DeLany, the previously missing Rochester Institute of Technology student whose remains were discovered Sunday night in a shallow indentation near the Wayland-Cohocton town line.
DeLany was last seen March 12, the day before his car was found in the Town of Wayland. State police in vain led massive search efforts, but it was a landowner who found DeLany in a previously unsearched area, two-to-three miles from the missing student’s vehicle.
Tuesday evening a crowd of approximately 75 gathered at the Schmitt Interfaith Center for a memorial service on the R.I.T. campus to remember their friend, classmate, and student.
“For those of you that knew George, I’m awfully sorry for your loss. For those of you that didn’t know George, I’m sorry for your loss, that you didn’t have a chance to get to know him,” said Mary-Beth Cooper, senior vice president for Student Affairs at R.I.T.
Adjunct faculty member Paloma Capanna, who was active in the “Students Finding George DeLany” organization publicizing his disappearance, read a letter from the DeLany family. The family wasn’t in attendance.
The letter summed up DeLany as a “nice person” who wanted to be known as a “tough guy,” despite it being against his nature.
“We are all a bit shy, and George inherited that trait,” said the letter. “That was tough to deal with as he grew older. Once he became involved with people, he could open up, and show the young man we loved so much.”
Much of the conversation at the memorial service centered on the community that developed during DeLany’s disappearance.
“Over the past month, our group (Students Finding George DeLany), with everyone here and in the community, has experienced something special, and that’s because of George,” said R.I.T. student James Brigden. “Not only has he built a sense of community that people work forever to try to build, he’s built it strong ... People work a lifetime to try to build a sense of community, and George did it in a very small amount of time.”
R.I.T. President Bill Destler, speaking before Brigden, also emphasized the community that had developed, and needed to continue.

“I hope all of us will dedicate ourselves to that basic idea, that we are all a family. Those of us that need help, need to know that we can help them,” said Destler. “We don’t know, we may never know, exactly what happened to George. But I think we do know that we have a responsibility to try to minimize these kinds of tragedies.
“If I’m proud of anything, I’m proud of the fact that this community kept its vigil going, both in person here on campus and on social networks ... I’m proud we didn’t give up hope until the very last.”
The discovery of DeLany’s remains would seem to bring closure, but Capanna and Brigden said they wouldn’t step back from the incident that has enveloped them in the past month. Capanna said she and the students will lobby to get Billy’s Law, legislation previously rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee, back to the Senate.
The law would create stronger sharing of information between missing persons databases and provide grants to municipalities and states to share information, according to an article from the Los Angeles Times.
Some of the details of the case — such as why DeLany was in Wayland, or the official cause of death — aren’t known. To Brigden, whatever details still unknown are irrelevant.
“We’re at the point where we have an answer for George’s family. The details we don’t know, and there aren’t many, aren’t as important to the students,” he said.
Others, though, such as sophomore D.J. Abele, are still curious as to what happened to their classmate.
“I’m torn. Part of me wants to know what happened. I don’t want more horrible news. I don’t,” he said.