Eliotte Heinz, Hortonville, Wisconsin, graduate student at Viterbo University in La Crosse goes missing while walking home after late night visit to bar.
Police and university officials in Wisconsin are seeking the whereabouts of a La Crosse graduate student who went missing while making her way home during early morning hours after an evening of bar hopping.
Eliotte Heinz, 22, a graduate student at Viterbo University was captured on surveillance camera walking southbound on the 500 Block of Front Street South — which is close to the Mississippi River — at approximately 3:22am on Sunday, July 20 according to the La Crosse Police Department.
Heinz’s failure to make it home has since led to her family in Tennessee pleading for the public to come forward with any information that might lead to her recovery.
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‘Her family, friends and police have made several attempts to locate her with no success,’ police added.
Prior to Heinz’s disappearance, the grad student was at Bronco’s Bar in La Crosse around 2:30 a.m. local time that morning News 8 Now reported.
Family members said she was on her way to her apartment — about a 30-minute walk from the bar.
Not immediately clear is whether the grad student had visited other bars before making her way to Bronco’s Bar and whether she was inebriated when she chose to make her way home.
‘She needs to be back home with us. That’s where she was trying to go,’ mom Amber Heinz said, according to the outlet. ‘We love you, we miss you, and we’re doing everything we can to get you back to us.’
‘We need to find her,’ added her brother Brian. ‘It’s tearing our family apart right now.’
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‘We ask that if you’ve seen anything, even if it’s small, anything at all, please call the La Crosse Police Department,’ Amber said, according to WIZM. ‘If you have Ring cameras and you think you might have captured an image of Eliotte, please call them, let them take a look at your footage. Even if you don’t think it’s a big deal, it could be a really big deal for her.’
A spokesperson for La Crosse PD said investigators have received an influx of tips regarding her whereabouts over the last 48 hours.
Heinz’s parents and two siblings spent Monday handing out fliers across the city.
The missing student is described as being about 5’4 and 120 lbs. with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a light T-shirt and cutoff shorts.
Police did not say if they suspected foul play.
La Crosse is a city of about 50,000 people in western Wisconsin across the Mississippi River from Minnesota.
Heniz is originally from Hortonville, Wisconsin, which is roughly three hours east of La Crosse.
In a post on a local bulletin board, her family shared that Heinz is working on her doctorate in psychology.
If you have information as to Eliotte’s whereabouts or if you have seen her, please call police non-emergency at 608-782-7575. You can also report her whereabouts anonymously at La Crosse Area Crime Stoppers at 608-784-TIPS
