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It looks grim, but police detectives are still looking into the possibility that Middlebury College freshman Nicholas Garza is alive and missing, not buried in one of hundreds of deep snow piles around the Vermont campus.

Middlebury Police Chief Tom Hanley said several detectives are working overtime interviewing students and others who saw Garza, 19, before he disappeared Feb. 5 after a party at a dorm on campus.

"There is a missing persons investigation going that doesn't assume the person is dead," Hanley said. "Then there are officers going through the snow that has been removed."

Vermont State Police had called off their portion of a search of the campus Tuesday because of an anticipated storm. Hanley said they expect to resume Saturday.

His detectives will be out today, though, using a ground-scanning radar, he said. The radar will be directed at the hundreds of feet of snow piles, many of which are 6 to 10 feet high, Hanley said.

Officers have also been searching through snow that was removed from campus in big dump trucks, a routine for Vermont's winters, in the six days before the campus security advised Garza's mother to file a missing person report with town police.

A college spokeswoman has said one of Garza's friends reported him missing the day after the dorm party and told campus security that he thought Garza might have left with a friend over the winter break.

Garza, an Albuquerque Academy graduate, did not make it to his classes Monday or the rest of this week.

Hanley said his detectives are not giving up on the missing persons portion of the investigation or on Garza.

"It has to be done," Hanley said.

Garza's family has helped search the small college campus and the town.

A fund has been established to help with their travel and lodging expenses.