Jonny Dorey Missing: Virginia Commonwealth Exchange Student Disappeared 2 Weeks Ago
RICHMOND, Va. (CBS/AP) Jonny Dorey was last seen walking away from his dorm at Virginia Commonwealth University with his mountain bike - that was two weeks ago, March 3, and no one has heard from him since.
Dorey is an experienced mountain biker and geography student from Guernsey, an island in the English Channel, and is on a year exchange at VCU. Police have released a CCTV video that shows Dorey leaving the Gladding Residence Centre at the university on his mountain bike at around 11 a.m two weeks ago Wednesday.
PICTURES: Jonny Dorey: Missing Exchange Student
Records show that he last used his cell phone that morning and made a credit card purchase at a local convenience store, then his phone was shut off, according to ITN.
Hundreds of people joined a search Sunday, braving rainy conditions to focus on a rural area near the university campus that is popular with walkers and mountain bikers. Bob Beebe, a close friend of the Dorey family who has been asked by the missing man's parents to be the family spokesman, said that the search would focus on the Belle Isle area, near the VCU campus, according to The Times of London.
"There is a very large group of people gathering around the Belle Isle area, which was the last known message link to Jonny's phone," Beebe said. "He may have gone off on a mountain bike trail, had an accident and injured himself. If he is lying there we want to find him."
VCU has offered a $5,000 reward which was just doubled by the University of West England, where Dorey studied last year, bringing the total reward to $10,000. Friends and family have started a Facebook page which already has over 22,000 members.
Dorey is described as between 5'10" and 6' tall, with brown hair, and was last seen wearing a white and blue plaid jacket, navy blue backpack, dark jeans and black sneakers.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Jonny Dorey is asked to Contact VCU Police Communications at 804-828-1196.