University of Wisconsin-La Crosse junior Jared P. Dion disappeared from downtown La Crosse at roughly 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning, according to the La Crosse Police Department.

Dion, 21, was last seen near the off-campus Jon’s Bar in the city’s downtown area.

His friends said Dion was with a group that left the bar shortly before bartime early Saturday morning.

He is a 5-foot-9, 165-pound white male with brown hair and eyes. Dion was last seen in blue jeans and a brown, long-sleeved shirt. Those with information regarding the case should call La Crosse Crimestoppers at (608) 784-8477.

According to a friend, Dion wanted to go back to a different bar, but the group eventually persuaded him to head home with them on a safe bus.

“Then they turned around five minutes later, and he was gone,” the UW-L student, who wished to remain unnamed, said.

The student said he heard Dion was “really drunk” but also heard Dion was coherent from different sources. Dion’s friends were with him minutes before he vanished.

Kim, Dion’s mother, said the last time she spoke with him was around 8:30 p.m. Friday night. She said Dion remained in La Crosse over Easter weekend because of a marketing project he had to turn in Friday and Saturday. The family planned to drive to La Crosse Sunday to celebrate Easter as a family.

Dion’s mother said she grew worried when Dion did not return her or his girlfriend’s calls over the weekend. By Saturday evening, she had filed a missing-persons report and drove to the UW-L campus.

His mother said Dion was with his roommates until about 1 a.m. Saturday morning before they separated, with her son staying behind to listen to a band. Dion’s mother said her son knew the band’s drummer, and students can verify that Dion hung around to congratulate the drummer after the show.

“Jared was fine — walking and talking, completely coherent,” she said.

Dion’s mother said she talks to both her sons at least three times a day, including her younger son Adam, who is a freshman and lives with Dion at UW-L.

Dion had no relationship or school problems, according to his mother, and is a “socially happy guy” with a lot of friends.

“There’s just something missing; a piece to this puzzle is missing,” she said.

Dion’s younger brother was on a skiing trip in Colorado over Easter weekend and returned shortly after Jared’s disappearance.

Because the bartime in La Crosse is 2 a.m., the fact that no one has reported seeing Dion could be attributed to the location of the bar at which the band was playing, UW-L Director of University Relations Kerry Caryheyer said. Jon’s Bar is nearly a mile from campus.

Caryheyer described Jon’s Bar as largely a hangout for middle-aged white-collar professionals.

“It’s definitely not a college bar,” he said. “The bar was unusually busy that night, packed wall-to-wall with people.”

UW-Madison junior Aaron Niay, a friend of Dion’s, said his disappearance does not make sense.

“He’s the kind of guy that would much rather hang around people than be by himself,” Niay said. “It’s odd that he wouldn’t have had any contact with anybody (over the weekend).”

Niay attended Arrowhead High School in Heartland, Wis., with Dion and last saw him while visiting UW-L in late February.

Niay said Dion’s closest friends on the UW-L campus recently traveled to Minnesota to hand out fliers alerting students of Dion’s disappearance. Niay has notified everyone he knows and plans on distributing fliers at UW-Madison.

“I’ve always known Jared as a great guy to hang around with. He’s someone that you can just sit around and laugh and chill with,” Niay said. “He’s always been someone fun to be around, and it’s very odd that he would just kind of disappear without any sort of trace.”

From 1997 to 1999, investigators declared each of five separate cases of male students who vanished in downtown La Crosse to all be the result of intoxication, which led to each student drowning in the nearby Mississippi River.

According to the Associated Press, Dion was last seen about two blocks east of the river. La Crosse police do not presently suspect foul play.

But UW-L wrestling coach Tim Fader said his gut feeling says otherwise, based on Dion’s strong character and friendly attitude. Both Dion and his younger brother wrestle for the UW-L wrestling team.

“Jared is very, very close with both his girlfriend and his mom, and to go a day without speaking with them, that is 100 percent out of character. Now it’s been four days, and it just makes you think that something has happened,” Fader said. “There isn’t one part of me that wouldn’t believe that something went wrong here — he’s just not out there not calling [anyone] because he doesn’t want to.”

Fader said the UW-L athletic department held a spur-of-the-moment meeting Monday to announce Dion’s disappearance.

“You saw these 225-pound guys when they heard the news,” Caryheyer said. “It just hit them right in the solar plexus and really took them down.”

Fader said the football team, basketball teams, soccer teams and roughly 50 past and present wrestlers attended the meeting and distributed fliers on campus.

UW-L Sports Information director David Johnson said the athletes also circulated posters throughout the downtown area where Dion was last seen, about six blocks from campus.

In the aftermath of the Audrey Seiler incident, many people close to Dion fear the recent hoax may negatively affect Dion’s investigation.

Caryheyer said although much has been done to alert La Crosse residents of Dion’s disappearance, the biggest challenge the campus faces is conveying the seriousness of the case.

“There’s a suspicion that it’s another missing kid that just so happens to be in Wisconsin, and if this had happened in any other state, it might be a different situation,” Caryheyer said. “[People with knowledge about the case] might wait another day or two [to check the validity of the disappearance], but time is of the essence.”

Dion’s mother pleaded for people nationwide to understand that her son’s disappearance is serious and deserves an exhaustive investigation, regardless of others who may have previously abused police services.

“This isn’t Jared off on a little joyride, and I don’t want him to be compared with [the Audrey Seiler case],” she said. “I’m not blaming Audrey for anything, but this situation is completely different. If Jared needed a break, he would say, ‘I need a break.'”

Fader said spreading information about Dion’s disappearance has been difficult in the wake of the Seiler hoax.

“It took us until Monday to get an actual photo of Jared on television,” Fader said.

A friend of Dion’s said because of the legal effort for Seiler, police were initially hesitant to launch an investigation.

“But then he didn’t show up for Easter or any of his classes on Monday, and the whole campus got an e-mail letting us know about [his disappearance],” his friend said.

Everyone close to Dion agreed that circulating information as far as possible could help bring him home sooner.

“It could be somebody from anywhere, anyplace that could come out with something that would help. Unless you get [investigation information] out there, you can’t reach those people,” Fader said.

Dion’s mother said she, along with about 40 friends and family members, posted more than 5,000 fliers, searched the bluffs surrounding La Crosse and walked along the riverfront searching for clues to Dion’s disappearance.

“[Police] are on horses right now searching all the marshy areas,” she said.

Dion’s mother said the team of 40 has interviewed students at downtown bars and house parties that received noise complaints Friday night and poured over surveillance cameras on safe buses and at area convenience stores for images of Dion or his friends.

Caryheyer said in addition to assisting city police in the investigation, UW-L is offering spiritual guidance to students. A pastor delivered a sermon at the university about love, strength and support for UW-L students in times of crisis and urged them to concentrate on finding Dion.

“That really kind of bonded everybody; it was the first time the family, friends and students had all been in the same room together,” Caryheyer said.

UW-L will hold a Celebration of Hope Wednesday night in which campus and community members will light candles and listen speeches about Dion’s life.

“[The celebration] is different than vigil by definition — the word suggests that it’s a requiem for a dead or dying being, and it’s not that at all,” Caryheyer said. “It’s truly a celebration of hope.”

Fader said the service would allow campus and community members an outlet to share their feelings about Dion.

“The little shreds of hope that everyone carries with them, if you bring them all together at that watchtower [Wednesday] night, something good has to come out of it.”

Dion’s mother has requested students from all campuses participate in the service by lighting candles at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

“I would like everyone to get together and share those moments with us,” she said. “[The service] will help keep Jared in our hearts and our prayers.”