DESPERATE SEARCHES Police seek clues, help in finding missing students

Desperate searches are underway Monday near two major college campuses for students who disappeared in recent days – one a sorority member from University of Minnesota Twin Cities, who vanished after leaving a bar; the other a member of the University of California Berkeley soccer team, who left a fraternity party to go on a walk.

Jennifer Houle, 22, was last seen around 1 a.m. Friday at the Blarney Bar, a popular student hangout near the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus in Minneapolis.

Minneapolis Police said Sunday that they found Houle’s purse three blocks from the bar.

Houle, a senior at the school and a member of the Pi Beta Phi Sorority, ran into an ex-boyfriend at the bar, which “set off some emotions,” her friend, Brooke Lavan, told KSTP-TV.

“We are actively pursuing leads that we have generated through the investigation,” Minneapolis Police Public Information Officer John Elder told FoxNews.com on Saturday. “We are still looking for her. We do not know her whereabouts.

In California, 19-year-old Eloi Vasquez left a party at the University of Southern California chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon at around 1:30 a.m. Saturday after telling his friends he wanted to take a walk, LAPD Officer Norma Eisenman said in a statement.

He never returned. A $50,000 reward is being offered for information on his location, KABC reports.

Police said that Vasquez didn't have any money or identification on him when he left the party. His mother, Wendy Margolin, told KNBC-TV that Vasquez called a friend in Northern California shortly after 2 a.m., telling her he was lost and in trouble. She said no one has been able to reach him on his cellphone.

"He pretty much said, 'I need you to come over here, I need help.' I asked him 'Where are you?' and he told me that he was in LA and that he didn’t know where he was at and that he was lost," the friend, Aurora Cardenas, told NBC Los Angeles. "The second time he called it just clicked. I didn’t know if his phone died, or if he hung up."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.