Washington State Cops Scour Campus for Missing Student Dwight Clark

Oct. 6, 2010 — -- A college student who earned straight A's and sent thousands of text messages to his family and friends each month has vanished in Washington, where authorities are scouring a university campus for the missing 18-year-old.

Dwight Clark was last seen in the early morning hours of Sept. 26 when he left an off-campus party at Western Washington University to go back to his dorm, less than a mile away, according to authorities in Bellingham, Wash.

"We are calling this a highly suspicious missing person (case)," said Mark Young, the public information officer for the Bellingham Police Department. "This has got us all very concerned as well as really curious as to what happened. We're more than just curious -- we're baffled by what has occurred."

Young said that while authorities are not certain foul play is involved in Clark's disappearance, the series of details regarding the case are certainly cause for suspicion.

"Despite extensive searching, canine scent dogs, and numerous -- hundreds -- of volunteers, no evidence of any kind has been obtained to substantiate or indicate what happened to Clark," said Young.

Clark was seen leaving the apartment of a friend's house at approximately 2 a.m. on Sept. 26, There are conflicting reports about whether Clark had been drinking at the party, said Young.

"But after 2 a.m. after that party, nothing," said Young. "He hasn't been seen or heard from."

The college freshman, who had started classes just a week before he disappeared, was not known to take drugs and if he had been drinking the night he went missing, friends said he was "not inebriated to the point of not knowing where he was or what he was doing."