Family: Woman With New Acquaintance Before Vanishing

INDIANAPOLIS -- Relatives of a missing college student on Thursday released information they received from private detectives about the case, including the belief that she spent the evening that she disappeared with a man she had just met.

Private investigators believe Molly Dattilo spent the evening she vanished -- July 6, 2004 -- in Indianapolis with a 33-year-old man whom she had met that day at a friend's apartment, according to Dattilo's brother, Ben Dattilo.

Ben Dattilo said he wouldn't speculate on whether the man had anything to do with the disappearance. However, police said Thursday that while they also believe the man, John E. Shelton, was with Molly Dattilo on the night she vanished, they don't consider him a suspect.

"What we hope, really, is that someone will recognize that they know something -- will realize that they have a missing piece of the puzzle," Ben Dattilo told reporters.

According to Ben Dattilo, private investigators believe Shelton and Molly -- a 23-year-old taking summer classes at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis -- took a boat ride in a pond at her apartment complex and then had dinner at a Taco Bell on Crawfordsville Road.

Molly Dattilo's family believes she later used a pay phone at a Thornton's gas station on Crawfordsville Road to call a friend. The line went dead when the friend picked up, Ben Dattilo said.

"After two and a half years, we have lost all but a glimmer of hope that she's alive. That's all I'm going to say on that," Ben Dattilo said.

Police said Thursday that they already had interviewed Shelton about the case. No arrests have been made in the investigation, 6News' Jeremy Brilliant reported.

Police said they respect the Dattilo family's right to speak about the case, but they said the information that Ben Dattilo released to the media wasn't new to authorities.

6News' attempts to reach Shelton for comment were unsuccessful.

Molly Dattilo's cell phone, identification and most belongings were found in her apartment, leaving the family and police to initially suspect foul play. A $100,000 reward for information about Dattilo remains in place.