Abel Bolanos’ family continues to search for answers about the sequence of events that took place on the night of his disappearance.

Now, exactly one year later, the Bolanos family is offering a $15,000 reward for any information that could lead to advances in

the case.

“If somebody knows about it, and that leads us to solve the case, then that’s what we want to know. It is a little bit mysterious the way he died,” said Abel Bolanos, father of the late Bolanos. “There are too many discrepancies, there are too many inconsistencies. That is why we do not have peace in our minds.”

Bolanos, who was a sophomore in English, was found dead in Lake LaVerne after an extensive three-day air search and door-to-door canvassing. Bolanos went missing in the early morning hours of March 31, 2007, after he left a party on Hyland Avenue. According to police reports, a jogger reported seeing a man who fit Bolanos’ description walking along the east side of Lake LaVerne around 4:30 a.m. the same morning.

But, despite witness accounts, the family still feels there is more to the story than what is being told.

“There’s a lot of loose ends,” said Marivelle Bolanos, Bolanos’ sister. “If anyone could offer a little bit more information, I think it would help us in terms of having the right answers to everything.”

Marivelle expressed concern about the timing of events from the moment her brother left the party to his discovery in Lake LaVerne. Inconsistent reports from people who attended the party added to the confusion for both the family and police officials.

“I concur that there are at least some time discrepancies that were not fully resolved,” said ISU Police Cmdr. Gene Deisinger. “From our standpoint, there were some questions that were not answered as fully as one would ideally like them.”

Daylight-saving time started in the early morning hours of March 31, which could have caused some of the time discrepancies party attendees relayed to police officials. Marivelle, however, believes there are other factors that contributed to the conflicting time frames that witnesses gave.

“I think there are a lot of people trying to protect people who were there, including the people who held the party and the underage girls who were there and their families,” Marivelle said. “I don’t necessarily think that is the best thing to do in this case.”

One underage girl identified was the daughter of Boone County Sheriff Ron Fehr. Fehr’s daughter was at the party the night Bolanos went missing. Fehr was not aware of his daughter’s attendance at the party until afterward.

“She was there earlier, but I don’t know how long,” Fehr said. “The police had talked to her because she was there for part of the time period.”

Fehr also said his daughter cooperated with police and didn’t think underage people at the party had anything do to with information being withheld.

But it wasn’t until Marivelle called Bolanos’ phone the morning after the party that she began to become concerned. Marivelle claimed a group of unidentified girls answered her brother’s phone.

“I called that phone number, and they immediately answered in a defensive way,” Marivelle said. “A normal person who answers the phone and has someone else’s phone would have said ‘Abel’s not here’ or try to explain why she had the cell phone.

It wasn’t like that at all.”

Marivelle said she immediately had a gut feeling that something was wrong. The defensive phone call has always been in the back of her mind and has left her family still searching for answers.