The convicted upstate sex offender long suspected in the December 2008 disappearance of Brooklyn beauty Laura Garza from a Manhattan nightclub was charged yesterday with murdering the aspiring dancer.
Michael Mele, 25, was also charged with manslaughter and tampering with evidence in the case, which had long stymied investigators even as they focused almost exclusively on him as a suspect.
Mele, an Orange County sandwich-shop owner, was the last person seen with Garza, 25, as she left the Chelsea nightclub Marquee on Dec. 3, 2008, and they were spotted together hours later driving in his SUV in Newburgh.
Yesterday’s grand-jury indictment of Mele — who was already locked up on an unrelated parole violation — came eight months after Garza’s remains were found in a field near Scranton, Pa., by a group of ATV riders.
Garza’s mother, Elizabeth, who lives in Texas, told The Post, “I am happy for everything that the police did,” but I’ve been sick for the past two years about my daughter.”
