Police have made three arrests in connection with six residential burglaries in Durham, Haddam, Higganum and Killingworth between November and January.

State police had been investigating these burglaries, as well as home burglaries in Middlefield, and working with police in Middletown, Cromwell and Rocky Hill, which were also investigating residential burglaries.

Witnesses provided vehicle descriptions and police determined that a 1998 tan Chevy S10 pickup connected to three men was used, as well as a green 1997 Honda Civic connected to a woman suspected of being involved.

Further investigation determined that the burglars used window punches and carried jewelry off in pillow cases.

The pillow cases were found in one suspect’s residence in Hartford, while the jewelry was sold to drug dealers in Hartford or sold in pawn shops, according to police.

Shane Martingano, 31, and Derek Perini, 29, who live together in Hartford, and Dane Tilley, 29, of Middletown, were arrested, accused of  stealing jewelry and electronics during a daytime residential burglary on Gunger Hill Road in Higganum in November 2012.

They were also suspected of stealing a safe containing a firearm, electronics and jewelry in a daytime residential burglary on Cedar Lake Road in Haddam in the same month.

All three have been charged in two daytime residential burglaries on Dec. 6, in which electronics and jewelry were stolen from a home on Little City Road in Killingworth and another on Weise Albert Road in Higganum.

Martingano and Perini are also accused of stealing electronics and jewelry from a home on Grapevine Road in Higganum in January 13.

Tilley is accused of committing a burglary on Haddam Quarter Road in Durham in January.

Police said a woman who is at York Correctional Facility in Niantic on unrelated charges is accused of driving the getaway vehicle, a Honda Civic, and both are suspected in a residential burglary in Wallingford.

Several charges have been filed against all three men. Charges connected to the burglaries are pending against the woman. 
 

New Haven turned 375 today and the city is celebrating.

Beginning at dusk on Wednesday, lasers will light the sky over New Haven, forming a “night rainbow.”

Today is the actual 375th Anniversary of New Haven, but a free, family-friendly birthday celebration will take place on Saturday, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on the Green.

“New Haven prides itself on being a welcoming city and I’d like to welcome everyone to the New Haven Green for this celebration to enjoy the day with your family and friends,” Mayor John DeStefano Jr. said in a news release.

“Night Rainbow/Global Rainbow New Haven,” a laser light sculpture is the 2013 public art commission of the group Site Projects and is the work of American artist Yvette Mattern. The rainbow will light up New Haven’s night sky for four consecutive nights, Wednesday through Saturday, from dusk until 1 a.m. 

The lasers will originate from the top of East Rock Park and beam west, across New Haven, into West Haven and fade over Long Island Sound for approximately 30 miles.

The festivities on the Green are all free and include performances and activities, including spoken word and poetry, classical music, folk music, gospel music, Ukrainian music and dance, ballet, salsa lessons, a yoga class, a puppet show and interactive art activities for children and adults.

In addition to the birthday festivities, Restaurant Week, which began on Sunday, runs through Friday, April 26 and participating restaurants will offer a three-course, prix fixe menu consisting of an appetizer, entrée and dessert. Prix fixe menus are priced at $18 for lunch and $32 for dinner.

Diners will be able to park at two downtown garages (the Temple Street Garage and the Crown Street Garage) for $3.75 from 4 p.m. until midnight for the duration of Restaurant Week.

Saturday’s celebration on the Green will kick off with opening remarks and then the re-planting of the Lincoln Oak, which was originally planted on the New Haven Green in 1909 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, but fell over during Hurricane Sandy last October. 

“This is a great way to celebrate the City’s birthday and a nice way for people to come together. With the wide range of activities, there will be something fun for everyone,” Vivian Nabeta, the director of arts, culture and tourism, said.

Here is a calendar of events:

Saturday, April 27, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on the New Haven Green

Performances on the Stages

Stage 1

• 1-1:10 p.m. Future Project’s Duck Bloated Quackers
• 1;10 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Opening remark with Mayor DeStefano, Congresswoman DeLauro and Drew Days
• 2:05 p.m.to 2:10 p.m. Ukrainian Society Vocals (world music)
• 2:20 p.m. to 2:40 p.m. Contemporary Classical Ballet Theater (dance)
• 3 to 3:10 p.m. Elm City Dance Collective (dance)
• 3:30 p.m. to 3:40 p.m. Music Haven - All Honors Orchestra (classical music)
• 3:40 p.m. to 3:50 p.m.  Music Haven - Harmony in Action (classical music)
• 4 p.m. Closing Musical Performance by Lancraft Fife and Drum Corps

Stage 2

• 1:15 p.m. to 2 p.m. New Haven Public Schools (variety)
• 2:15 p.m. to 2:25 p.m. Kenneth Reveitz (poetry/spoken word)
• 2:30 p.m. to 2:40 p.m. Kristen Graves (folk music)
• 2:45 p.m. to 2:55 p.m. Esther Golton (folk music)
• 3:10 p.m. to 3:20 p.m. Intake Organization (classical music & Ecuadorian dance)

1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Activities on the Green

• Alisa's House of Salsa
• Central Church, open to visitors
• Future Project, Imagine without Limits: Imagine without Limits: Spark Your Passion, Build Your Dream, Spread Your Vision, & Act in Extraordinary Ways. Future Fellows ask participants what they are passionate about and what the change they would like to see the world. Then the fellows will show participants how to turn their passion into reality and how to become an agent for positive change. This activity is open to people of all ages.
• Horse Drawn Carriage Rides
• Lancraft Fife and Drum Corps
• Long Wharf Theatre: 1:00-1:50    Origin of Fishes
• Story in the Box telling of Origin of Fishes
• Make Fish Puppets

2:00-2:50: How Spider Obtained the Sky
                    Felt board Story telling of the folktale
                    Physical Exploration into how these animals move

3:00-3:50: Bear and the Fox
                    Telling of the folktale through story drama
                    Paper bag puppets of one of the characters in the Story

• New Haven Museum, Tricorn Hatmaking
• Project Storefronts, Metamorphosis: starts off with small colorful paper butterfly shapes. A message of hope, a dream, or a wish is written on each butterfly and then glued to a backing that will be hung or mounted in various spaces and places at the current Project Storefronts location on 756 Chapel Street.
• Schooner Touch Tank
• Trinity Church, 2 films: The New Haven Green: Heart of a City and Grove Street Cemetery: City of the Dead, City of the Living - Two half-hour video tours of historic New Haven areas
• United Church, film:  Amistad Revolt: All We Want Is Make Us Free
• Zumba

1:30 p.m: Replanting of the Lincoln Tree

1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. Instrument Petting Zoo, Neighborhood Music School

2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Yoga on the Green, Breathing Room



 

Darien police have arrested a Bridgeport man accused of breaking into a Darien home, ransacking it and stealing jewelry and electronics.

A Noroton Avenue resident called police after 3:15 p.m. on Tuesday, after returning home and discovering the house had been ransacked and reported it to police. 

The investigation led police to a hotel in Milford, where the stolen items were recovered, police said. 

Darien police arrested Philip Michael Rivera, 27, of Bridgeport, and charged him with third-degree burglary, third-degree conspiracy to burglary and fourth-degree larceny.

Police said Rivera has a lengthy criminal record for similar types of crimes. 

He was unable to post the $25,000 bond and appeared in court on Tuesday. 

Darien police said determined that this burglary was not related to another reported burglary earlier in the day on Weeds Landing in which other individuals were charged.
 

A parolee wanted on suspicion of abducting a 10-year-old girl from her Los Angeles home was arrested in a remote Mexican village at a rehab clinic where he had checked in under an alias, Baja police said Wednesday.

Tobias Summers was arrested at La Mision clinic in the village of Las Missiones, south of Rosarito near Ensenada, said Alfredo Arenas of the Baja California State Police.

The FBI alerted Mexican police to the suspect's possible location on Tuesday evening, Arenas said.

Police visited the clinic and were able to identify Summers by a "Superman" tattoo on his chest, Arenas said.

He was arrested Wednesday morning and was en route to Los Angeles, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said at a news conference.

Summers was named as a suspect after the girl was taken from her home in the Northridge neighborhood of L.A. the night of March 27 during what police said was a botched burglary.

The girl was found — barefoot, scratched and bruised — some 12 hours after her disappearance, at a Woodland Hills coffee shop. She described her assailants and said she had been taken to multiple locations during her ordeal.

A second suspect, 29-year-old Daniel Martinez, was arrested several days after the kidnapping. Charged with one count each of kidnapping and burglary, Martinez was considered a secondary suspect after allegedly driving a getaway car a short distance before getting out, according to county allegations.

Summers, meanwhile, was charged by Los Angeles County prosecutors on April 3 with 37 felony counts -- one of kidnapping a child, one of burglary, one of kidnapping to commit another crime, and 34 counts related to sexual assault against the kidnapping victim.

In addition to the state charges, Summers faces federal charges of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, according to a complaint filed in federal court on April 11.

The court document (PDF) provides a chronology of the days after the kidnapping happened.

A joint FBI/LAPD fugitive task force learned that the suspect may have fled to San Diego on March 31. The next day, police and agents interviewed a friend who told them Summers was thinking about going to Mexico.

Within several hours of police announcing Summers as their primary suspect in the case, still photos captured the suspect entering Tecate, Mexico, on March 30, court papers said.

A warrant was issued for his arrest on April 3.

Summers was released from prison in July 2012 under California's Assembly Bill 109, an initiative aimed at easing prison overcrowding and was on "post-supervised release," according to police.

He previously served three prison terms, has a history of substance addiction and allegedly has been active in a San Fernando Valley white supremacist gang.

Former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner appeared to take a closer step toward a mayoral bid on Wednesday, hinting in an apology-laden interview with NBC 4 New York that there could be more revelations about his 2011 sexting scandal and expressing hope that New Yorkers would “give me a second chance.”

Weiner seemed to be preparing the public for the possibility of more allegations about his online relationships with women, which first came to light in the spring of 2011 when he accidentally tweeted a photo of his underpants.

He said Wednesday he had already come clean about what he'd done, but left open the possibility that women who haven't yet come forward to talk about their online relationships with him could decide to speak publicly about it any time.

“Some things may come out that are true,” Weiner said. “Some things are not."

He did not elaborate on what those things might be.

"But here’s what I try to do to draw the line," he continued. "Basically, New Yorkers know the story. I did it. I did it with multiple people. These things were wrong and inappropriate, and I never should have been dishonest about it. They played out in the most public and embarrassing way possible. And that’s it."

Weiner, 47, resigned from his Brooklyn congressional seat in June 2011 after using Twitter to send provocative photos of himself to women and when the exchanges became public, he claimed he’d been hacked. He eventually confessed and went into virtual hiding with his wife, Huma Abedin, a senior adviser to Hillary Clinton. At the time, Abedin was pregnant with their first child.

"That’s what people need to know, and that’s where I stand, and I own that completely," Weiner said. "And it’s something that I’m going to work with for a long time.”

His comments to NBC 4 New York came in the first of three interviews with local media outlets on Wednesday, an effort that can be viewed as another way of inching toward joining the crowded field of Democratic primary candidates.

An NBC New York/Marist College poll this month found that if Weiner jumped into the race, he would get 15 percent of Democratic votes, vaulting him straight into second place behind City Council Speaker Christine Quinn but still far from what he’d need to avoid a runoff.

As a congressman, Weiner was known for his fiery personality, and one particularly passionate speech on the House floor during a debate on a bill that would expand health benefits for the victims of 9/11. Recalling that moment on Wednesday, Weiner said that while he’d stepped away from public life for two years, he hadn’t lost that gusto.

“Anger like that, passion like that, I hope that if I get a chance to come back I won’t lose that,” he said.

Asked when he was going to announce whether he would run, Weiner replied, “It’s a matter of days --maybe weeks -- but not more.”

Weiner said that in 2011 he’d ignored supporters’ pleas not to resign because his top priority was, and remains, to repair his marriage.

He and Abedin have a 15-month old son. She has forgiven him, Weiner said, but he added that they still talk about it and he’ll probably be apologizing to her “for the rest of my life.”

Weiner said he still had a lot of forgiveness to seek of many other people, including his former constituents and the reporters he lied to. But he also said he hoped that his transgressions would not define his life and career.

“I guess I want to be viewed through the full continuum of what people know about me, no one particular chapter,” he said.

He said he wanted to be remembered for his efforts on health care reform, protecting the Rockaways before Hurricane Sandy hit, trying to curb hunger among New York children, and trying to lower taxes on the middle class.

“These are things that I worked on and I think should be part of people’s judgment,” Weiner said. I guess all I’m saying is, for the time being, is just take a second look. And give me a second chance.”

Weiner has long desired to be mayor. He ran in 2005, and nearly forced a runoff against Fernando Ferrer, but conceded in the name of party solidarity. He planned to run again in 2009, and was considered a leading contender, but dropped out after Mayor Bloomberg chose to run for a third term.

Prior to his unraveling, Weiner had begun to plan for a 2013 campaign. He still has more than $4 million in his campaign account.

In recent weeks, Weiner has been making slow steps toward another mayoral run. He commissioned an internal poll in March to gauge what voters thought of him. He granted a series of intimate interviews with The New York Times Magazine, which resulted in a cover story  that detailed his efforts to repair his marriage and decide whether to pursue his political dream. He released a policy booklet that was similar to one he distributed in anticipation of running in 2009. And he has slowly started giving interviews to the local media.

Weiner has also returned to Twitter, albeit under a new handle, @anthonyweiner, instead of the doomed former handle, @repweiner.

He said he’d watch himself much better this time.

“This isn’t like some kind of addiction or anything,” he said. “It was something I did that was very thoughtless and very dumb. I’m not thoughtless about it anymore, believe me.”

The warm spring weather is here at last on Wednesday and people have been enjoying being outside, especially on college campuses across the state.

This is the first of several seasonably warm days in the seven-day forecast.

High temperatures on Thursday and Friday will be in the 60s, while temperatures could reach into the 70s inland over the weekend.

When bad weather happens, you send us photos, but we want photos of you and your family enjoying the nice weather too.

Send them to us at photos@nbcconnecticut.com, upload them here or Tweet them to us @nbcconnecticut
 

An employee of a South Windsor meat and poultry company has been arrested, accused of stealing $10,000 worth of chicken wings and other meat from the company.

The larceny happened at County Distributors, on John Fitch Boulevard, in February 2012, according to police.

The owner of the business reviewed surveillance footage from his warehouse and noted that an employee, identified as Boris Delisser, 43, of Bloomfield, had taken products from the warehouse and loaded them into a vehicle, all while there was no sales transaction, according to police. 

When police investigated, they found that Delisser had done this on several occasions and the total loss is estimated in excess of $10,000 worth of chicken wings and meat, according to police.

Police obtained a warrant charging Delisser with larceny in the first degree, which was served on Tuesday. 

He was released on a $10,000 surety bond and is scheduled to appear at Manchester Superior Court on May 2.

The daughter of Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter was assaulted during a high school track meet last week.

Olivia Nutter's mother, Lisa Nutter, told NBC10 Philadelphia that the 18-year-old was involved in an incident and is fine. She did not offer additional details.

Law enforcement sources told NBC10 Philadelphia that Nutter was attending a track meet at Morris E. Leeds Middle School in the East Mt. Airy neighborhood last Thursday evening when the assault occurred.

The mayor's daughter was walking towards a group of girls when one of them told Nutter to move, according to police. Moments later, police say, Nutter was assaulted.

Philadelphia police were called to the scene and the alleged assailant fled the field. An hour later, Ciarra Ryan, 18, was arrested. She was charged with simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.

The motive in the attack is unknown. Officials also have not yet revealed whether Ryan were participating in the meet.

Nutter is a student at the city's prestigious Julia R. Masterman Middle and High School.

It is unclear whether Nutter has a security detail. NBC10 Philadelphia has reached out to the mayor's office for details.

The UConn recreation center could get a $100 million upgrade if students are willing to pay for it.  

The center would feature a 50-meter pool, turf field, yoga room, and possibly a juice bar.

The project would be funded by student fees of up to $500 a year.

“It’s does not seem reasonable that the university says they can't do that. I think they just need to try harder," said Ian Yue, a graduate student at UConn.

But some students feel the current center is old and out dated.

“The ceilings are leaky. In our weight room there are holes in the floors," said Julia Quattrini, a UConn senior.

The UConn board of trustees met about the plan on Wednesday.

The proposal would require undergraduate students to pay annual fees of up to $500. Graduate students would pay $400.

The board will meet again in August and likely vote on the plan.

Fees won’t kick in until the center is built. The goal is to have it open by 2016.

Quinnipiac University students are on edge after a student was attacked in her off-campus home on Linden Avenue, last Sunday. 

Hamden Police say the victim woke up around 4 a.m. to an intruder sexually assaulting her.  When she screamed for help, the attacker strangled her and punched her in the face several times, even threatening to kill her.  He then placed a sheet over her head and left.

The University sent out a notice to students both on and off campus alerting them to be aware of their surroundings and to report any suspicious activity to the their Department of Public Safety or to Hamden Police.

Students are taking the warning seriously. 

Senior, Gaby Catalano who lives next door to the victim, says they’re “definitely on alert,” explaining that she and her friends are, “trying to take any safety precaution we can so there’s no possibility of anyone getting inside.”

Police aren’t saying if the intruder knew the victim or if he was stalking the house, but they say it’s possible he got in through an unlocked door.

Authorities describe the suspect as a 5’6”, Hispanic male with a stocky build. 

Anyone with any information is asked to contact the Hamden Police Department Detective Division at (203) 230-4040 or (203) 230-4000.

A Middletown couple, mere feet away from one of the explosions, is recounting the terror from that day.

Amy and Mike Garofolo were in Boston to cheer on a friend in the race. But more importantly to mark a re-birth in her fight with cancer.

For four hours they were on the sidewalk outside Forum Restaurant, waiting for their friend to cross the finish line. His slow time may have saved their lives.

“I remember him being blown back into the restaurant and going down like a rag doll. Glass everywhere and then I blacked out,” said Amy Garofolo, who says when she came to, her son Ryan was carrying her away from all the chaos.

She says it felt like she got hit by a ton of bricks. “And as we were evacuating out the back of the restaurant, I could feel blood trickling down my face.”

Amy sustained serious injuries as did her husband Michael. He has perforated ear drums, staples in his head and burns on his hand. 

“There was lots of glass. I remember the falling glass,” said Michael. “Thinking to myself this isn’t good.”

It’s still difficult to process for the Garofolo’s of Middletown. They were in Boston that Monday for a cancer fundraiser at Forum; they were also in town to celebrate Amy’s first anniversary of her stem cell transplant.

They had come in just 30 minutes before the first bomb went off and then the second exploded.

“We were literally out by the road cheering for four hours,” Amy said.

“I think of the what ifs. The thousand different decisions. Little decisions that were made by myself or Amy and a lot of different people that affected where we were,” Michael added.

Both Mike and Amy were blown back into the restaurant. They found their kids and were evacuated out back. Mike though went back in to help out; he saw the front glass blown out and pure terror.

“And then once I got out there, it was pretty horrific,” Mike said. Within a split second one minute they are cheering on their friends they're on the ground missing body parts wondering what the heck just happened.”

Mike was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital to be checked out and was released several hours later.

“I’m just thankful,” said Mike.

Neither one of them has taken me down and I’m going to fight back against both of them,” Amy added.

Amy has been battling multiple myloma for two years and says an incident like this has made her even stronger. As for her marathon injuries she says she had glass in her hands, cuts in her head and down her nose but the Garofolo’s know luck was on their side.

 

A student at a middle school in Trumbull was taken into police custody after brandishing a knife.

The 8th grade student in the Alternate School Program at Madison Middle School pulled out the knife around 1 p.m. on Wednesday, according to Superintendent of Schools Ralph Iassogna.

A school security guard and police were called immediately, Iassogna said.

Trumbull police took the student into custody. Charges against the student were not immediately available.

No one at the school was threatened and no one was hurt in the incident, according to Iassogna.

International heads of state, former government officials, and other dignitaries are scheduled to be in attendance for the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Library on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

All five living American presidents will attend the ceremony, including President Obama, and former presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter.

First lady Michelle Obama, as well as former first ladies Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, Barbara Bush, and Rosalynn Carter, are also scheduled to attend.

Additional Bush family members including George W. Bush's daughters, Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Bush, brother Jeb Bush and his family, including son George P. Bush, will also be present.

The list of confirmed invitees also includes dozens of high profile public servants, including former Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates, Former Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales, and former Education Secretary Rod Paige.

International heads of state scheduled to attend include:

• Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen (NATO)
• President Mikheil Saakashvilli and Mrs. Sandra E. Roelofs (Georgia)
• President Josè Marìa Aznar (Spain)
• Prime Minister and Mrs. Ehud Olmert (Israel)
• Prime Minister and Mrs. John Howard (Australia)
• President Lee Myung-bak and Mrs. Yoon-ok Kim (Korea)
• Prime Minister Tony Blair and Mrs. Cherie Blair (United Kingdom)
• President John Kufuor (Ghana)
• President Francisco Flores Perèz and Mrs. Lourdes Maria Rodriguez de Flores (El Salvador)
• Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (Italy)

One of the 1,000 guests attending the ceremony will be Colorado filmmaker David Basinger.

According to the Loveland Reporter-Herald, Balsiger received an invitation to the small ceremony because of a documentary he worked on about the former president in 2004, which looked at Bush's faith and its role in his life.

West Haven police have arrested a suspect in the robbery at Greater West  Haven Municipal Credit Union on Monday, April 15.

Police said Roosevelt Strong, 22, of West Haven, is the one suspect in a robbery.

He is accused of handing a teller a note demanding money and fleeing, according to a news release from police.  

West Haven police officers assigned to the Federal Marshals Task Force, along with Officers of Adult Probation, located Roosevelt, who was charged with second-degree robbery and larceny he was held on bond.
 

Jamie Roland, a junior at Hall High School in West Hartford, is being rewarded with membership into National Honor Society, but his journey to junior year has not been an easy one.

Roland has Down Syndrome. The family previously lived in Florida and his mother, Lisa, said she was told that a boy with Jamie's challenges didn't belong in a mainstream public school, so she home-schooled her son for several years before they moved to Connecticut in 2009.

"We came with a lot of baggage and we were very reticent about putting him in school," Lisa Roland said. "We didn't know how he was going to act or react to such a large environment."

In his three years at Hall High, Jamie has thrived both in and out of the classroom.

"The other students are nice, engaged and are fun to hang out with," the energetic 18-year-old said.

Lisa said they study together every night after school for at least four hours and that hard work has paid off.

Jamie's maintained a 3.6 grade point average and has been rewarded with membership into National Honor Society.

He's more similar than he is dissimilar to every child in the school, his mother said.

“He wants to be with friends. He wants to text them. He wants them to call. He wants to go out. He wants a girlfriend. He wants to go to the prom," Lisa said.

Jamie takes mostly co-taught classes with typical peers, like acting social studies and Modern American Literature and his teacher, Kim Hart-Kindelberger, said he regularly contributes in class.

"He interacts with the other students, hears their perspectives and they learn from each other, and that's very beneficial," Hart-Kindelberger said.

Lisa Roland said her son has cleared every hurdle that's stood in his way and Jamie said he feels great about what he's been able to achieve.

"I work hard in school. I'm very proud," he said.

Lisa points to the impact he makes in the hallways at Hall High.

"He's gonna change the world, one person at a time. He's a leader by being here, by being here and showing people what people with disabilities can do. We're incredibly proud of him," she said.
 

A body pulled from a river in Providence, Rhode Island two days ago has been positively identified as missing Brown University student, Sunil Tripathi.

The state's Department of Health made the announcement this morning, formally ending the 38 day search for Bryn Mawr native. The medical examiner used dental records to identify Tripathi. His cause of death is still being investigated but the ME said no foul play was suspected.

Tripathi, 22, had been missing since March 16. He was last seen on surveillance video early that morning, not far from his apartment on Brook Street, near campus.

Sunil's case was thrust back into the spotlight last week after a viral onslaught of erroneous speculation that Tripathi was connected to the Boston Marathon bombings.

The family this morning posted a message on the Facebook page they'd been using in the search for Sunil:

"As we carry indescribably grief, we also feel incredible gratitude. To each one of you -- from our hometown to many distant lands -- we extend our thanks for the words of encouragement, for your thoughts, for your hands, for your prayers, and for the love you have so generously shared."

His body was found by members of the school's crew team in the water near India Point Park, which is a few blocks away from Tripathi's apartment.

Tripathi, a graduate of Radnor High School, moved to Providence to attend Brown. He was studying philosophy but took a leave this semester. Sunil battled depression and was working through a "tough time," his sister Sangeeta said last month. The family felt that in the weeks before he disappeared, however, Sunil was doing well. 

On the day his brother went missing, Ravi Tripathi made the trip from Philadelphia to Providence, R.I. as fast as he could.

“We dropped everything. We didn’t even pack. And then a couple of days turned into over a month.”

Providence was ground zero in the search for Sunil Tripathi. His immediate family, extended family and close friends were all there together. Every day they met and collaborate on what they can do next.

"It's a very scary thing to be on the other side of it and see how quickly our voices got drowned out and hysteria took over," Ravi Tripathi said in an interview on Monday.

The Tripathi family has been posting the latest information and messages of hope on their “Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi” Facebook page.

"It's been a roller coaster for all of us," Ravi said earlier this week, reflecting back on the five weeks they've spent searching for Sunil.  Ravi said he would always be grateful for the time everyone has spent together, saying the support of family and friends has been "beautiful. A gift."

The body of a student at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island has been found in water near a hotel on Providence.

Sunil Tripathi, 22, of Pennsylvania, was reported missing in March and the Federal Bureau of Investigation was helping in a five-state search that included Connecticut, according to the Providence Journal.

Tripathi was last seen on Friday, March 15 on the campus of the Ivy League university, according to the Journal, and the search was expanded to Connecticut, Boston, New York and Philadelphia.

His family said Sunil’s wallet, ID cards, credit cards and cell phone were found in his room.

"The Rhode Island State Medical Examiners office this morning confirmed that the body found late Tuesday afternoon in the water at India Point Park (opposite the Wyndham Hotel) is that of Sunil Tripathi, age 22," an e-mail from Providence city officials said.

The medical examiner declared that no foul play is suspected in his death.

Members of the Brown crew team found Tripani's body in waters off India Point Park, according to the Associated Press.

Relatives of Tripathi, who's from Bryn Mawr, Pa., had been searching for him with help from the FBI and Brown students.

A Twitter account, @findingsunny, and a Facebook page were set up to help with the search and the family posted a message on the Facebook page on Thursday morning.

"As we carry indescribable grief, we also feel incredible gratitude. To each one of you–from our hometown to many distant lands–we extend our thanks for the words of encouragement, for your thoughts, for your hands, for your prayers, and for the love you have so generously shared."

Tripathi grew up in Bryn Mawr, Pa., and had been living in Providence since 2008, according to Brown University, where he is a philosophy major and a talented saxophonist.

Rocky Hill residents rallied, held numerous meetings and filed a lawsuit to stop a nursing home for prison inmates and mental patients from opening on West Street, but they were dealt a devastating blow this week when a judge dismissed their suit.

“It makes me feel awful and devastated. I feel like this is a very complicated issue that should’ve been argued on the merits and, unfortunately, the judge just dismissed it without giving us a day in court,” Nicole Crawford said.

Crawford has spearheaded the effort to keep iCare Management from opening the facility, which would be across the street from her home.

“We’ve stood up and said … ‘We’re concerned about our safety,’ and they don’t care,” Crawford said.

The nursing home is aimed at providing end-of-life care for prison inmates. State officials said by moving patients into the 95-bed facility, it’d qualify the state to receive more than $5 million a year in federal Medicaid reimbursement.

However, Crawford said the facility raises many safety concerns.

“It’s 50 feet from homes and children. … You’re putting potentially 95 sex offenders, including pedophiles, 50 feet from children.”

NBC Connecticut reached out to iCare Management, the private company that would run the facility, but did not hear back as of Thursday morning.

Crawford said this is one local issue that should concern everyone in Connecticut.

“If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere,” she said.

Meantime, the town of Rocky Hill is planning to appeal the ruling.