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Body of Accident Victim Recovered in Niagara River

By Mark Scott

Niagara Falls, NY – The body of a missing 19-year-old college student involved in a car accident in February may have been found in the Niagara River.

Police say tourists spotted the body caught on a log between Goat and Green islands Saturday afternoon. It's believed to be that of Travis Hennigar. The clothes on the body match what Hennigar was wearing on the morning of the crash.

Hennigar was an Erie Community College student. He was driving a car at a high rate of speed when it ran off the road during the early hours of February 10th and plunged into the Niagara River.

His passenger, University at Buffalo student Jeffrey Critelli, 18, also of Grand Island, managed to escape the submerged vehicle by kicking out the sunroof and swimming to shore.

Police say the two had attended a party at a University at Buffalo fraternity house. That led UB officials to suspend activities at the Alpha Sigma Phi chapter.

Final identification of the body will await the results of an autopsy scheduled for Monday.