Police Investigate Many Tips In Search for Missing Student

Police officers investigating the disappearance of Joan L Webster said yesterday that as new leads have been uncovered in the search, but that they are continuing to examine several tips they have will help from locate the Graduate School of Design student missing since November.

Corporal John O'Rourke, one of the state police officers co-ordinating the search, said yesterday the search for Webster is continuing with the same intensity as it has been from the onset, and added that police are investigating every tip they receive "no matter how farfetched. "O'Rourke said, "We've received numerous phone calls from clairvoyants and people who think this or that--everything has to be checked out."

Country to recently published reports, officials denied that the Boston police are currently combing abandoned buildings in Roxbury and the South End with accenting dogs. O'Rourke said that searches are planned but will not take place for more than a week.

Officials said that the Boston police received several letters suggesting the searches of the abandoned buildings and stating that Webster had attended a party at a Harvard "social club" the night she disappeared, prompting Archie E. Epps III, dean of students, to send letters last week to the nine finals clubs making for their cooperation in the investigation.

Jack W. Morse, captain of the University police, said yesterday that Harvard officers have examined all but two of the clubs and that the remaining clubs will be searched in the next week. He added that no new leads have resulted from the investigations.

Only one club, the D.U., had a party the night Webster disappeared, Morse said, adding that the club did not sponsor the function but had rested their building to "an outside group" that was not Harvard-affiliated.

Morse said officers had located the host and many of the guests at the party, with no concrete leads.

The last solid information uncovered in the investigation was the discovery of Webster's suitcase at the Greyhound bus terminal in Boston three weeks ago. The piece or luggage had been in a storage locker for more than 60 days, and O'Rourke said any fingerprints on the suitcase had worn off.

Webster disappeared from the Eastern Airlines baggage claim area at Logan Airport on November 28 after returning from the Thanksgiving holiday.