LITTLE ROCK — A body found Sunday in Pulaski County is that of a University of Arkansas-Little Rock student missing since last week, a spokesman for the family said Monday.
Elvira Rico, a friend who has acted as a translator for family in the wake of 20-year-old Patricia Guardado's disappearance, said she was there late Monday morning when police pulled Guardado's mother and father aside and informed them.
"It was very devastating for the family and friends," Rico said.
Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas confirmed the identification at an afternoon news conference at police headquarters. Thomas said he could not discuss specifics of the case, but asked anyone with information to contact authorities.
Lionor Garcia, Guardado's mother, said through tears earlier Monday that she had been asked to go to the morgue to determine whether the body was that of her daughter. But Rico said police told her a short time later they had already determined the body was Guardado.
Guardado has been missing since Wednesday, when she left home for class. Her car was found in the parking lot of a University Avenue Burger King, but there was no sign of Guardado. She did not attend any of her classes Wednesday.
In a statement she made before learning the body was Guardado, Garcia asked anyone with information to come forward immediately.
"She knows that there's people that know something out there," Rico said, translating. "So whoever there is out there, please talk. Just look at this mother suffering for her daughter."
Garcia - clutching a photograph of her daughter and speaking through tears - said then that police informed her initially that they had found a body of a woman, though they didn't yet have an identity. The body was found Sunday night in an old strip mining pit about 200 to 300 yards off Arkansas 365 South near Sweet Home.
A police report family and friends told police an ex-boyfriend of Guardado's had been attempting to contact her about a week-and-a-half before her disappearance. Thomas said investigators have located that boyfriend, but he said he couldn't comment on if he is a suspect or has been cleared.
UALR Chancellor Joel E. Anderson said in a statement that the school will make counselors available to students and employees "struggling with this tragic event."
"Our worst fears have come true," Anderson said. "I am shocked and saddened by this news. The hearts of all of us at the university go out to Patricia's family and friends."
Thomas said a $1,000 reward has been offered for information leading to an arrest.
The news of Guardado's body came on the same day students at UALR canvassed the parking lot where Guardado's car was found with fliers seeking information on her disappearance. Police were also present, with detectives scouring bushes on the far end of the lot and taking down information about vehicles parked there.
The organizer of the student effort, Carissa Noriega, said Guardado would have been parking in the same lot around the same time Wednesday morning before she disappeared.
"Hopefully someone saw something and will report it," Noriega said while handing out fliers featuring information on the case and Guardado's photograph.