Dead US student's father questions accident theory

The parents of Austin Bice, the US Exchange student whose body was pulled from Madrid's Manzanares river earlier this week, say there are many unanswered questions about their son's death and have not ruled out foul play.

"For him to have walked all the way from the station to the club and then all of sudden not being able to walk back home, there is something else going on here," said Larry Bice. "We don't think that it had anything to do with drinking he did earlier that would have precluded him from getting home."

A preliminary autopsy determined that Austin Bice drowned after he fell into the Manzanares.

Larry and Pamela Bice spoke to reporters outside their Carlsbad, California home on Wednesday a day after Austin's father returned from Madrid where he took part in an 11-day search for his son.

The 22-year-old San Diego State University student who was studying at Madrid's Universidad Carlos III disappeared on February 26 after he was last seen in front of the La Riviera club in Puerto del Ángel. His body was pulled from the river Tuesday morning. Friends said that he had been at a party beforehand before going to La Riviera to hear a DJ play but wasn't allowed into the club because he was "a little drunk."

His father said that Austin always insisted that he didn't want to "the boisterous American" and drank moderately.

Quoting a Madrid court source, the Associated Press reported on Thursday that Austin died from cardiac arrest. The cause of the heart attack will be determined in the coming days, the station reported.

The elder Bice said that it was "kind of unusual" for no one to notice his son at the Manzanares wall from where he reportedly fell on a Friday night when they area is swarming with people.

When asked whether he was satisfied with the manner the Spanish inquiry into his death is being handled, Larry Bice said: "Of course not." Specifically, the father complained that investigators would not answer him directly when he would ask questions.

"We have been told by local sources in Spain and outside Spain that the police force is one of the best in the world so we have to go with that and assume that they are going to do the top notch job," he said.

On Wednesday, an American flag was placed at the wall where Austin apparently fell with a picture and words written in English: "Murdered in Madrid. Americans want justice." Bice said he had heard about it but didn't know who placed the sign.

When asked what message she had for parents who want their children to study aboard, Pam Bice, who didn't want her son to go to Madrid in the first place, said: "Don't send him, don't let them go."