Candlelight Vigil Planned for Missing Student

Meanwhile, search heats up in Madrid

Students will hold a candlelight vigil Monday at San Diego State, two days after family and friends of  missing exchange student Austin Bice began a search Saturday in Madrid.

The vigil will be held at 6 p.m. on the Free Speech Steps on the school's campus.

In Madrid, the group gathered at the La Riviera nightclub, where Austin Bice, a 22-year-old Torrey Pines High School graduate, was last seen on Feb. 25.

“I just want to say thank you for all of you being here,” said Larry Bice, Austin’s father, who arrived in Spain on Wednesday and has been dispensing missing posters. “It's hard for me to talk about it, but thank you.”

One roommate told the newspaper El Pais that Bice was last seen standing outside the nightclub after being refused entry by bouncers. The roommate claimed Bice was too intoxicated to be admitted, the paper reported.

Friends reportedly said Bice then decided to leave on his own.

Austin’s cousin, Juan Gabriel Paredes, also spoke to the Madrid crowd.

"I've known Austin since he was a little boy and … I've known him as my own son,”  Paredes said. “I have a 3-year-old little boy, and if he would not come home, I would move heaven and earth to find him.

"Please, I am asking you folks of Madrid, please provide us any information that you can on the whereabouts of this boy. Let's bring him home."

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