Here’s the Ithaca Minute for December 24th!

Nicole Marranca may have last been seen in Ithaca about four months ago, but her family hasn’t given up hope. Just days after her 28th birthday, a $500 reward was announced, for tips that result in finding Nicole. Ithaca Police reached out to the public for help in early September after exhausting all leads.

According to the Find Nicole Marranca page on Facebook, she was last seen at the Economy Inn on Elmira Road in Ithaca, and “may have left with a Caucasian male in a black pickup truck.” If you have any information that could assist in the search, please contact IPD.

A man displaying a handgun robbed Ithaca’s Shortstop Deli in the wee hours of Christmas Eve. According to a store employee, a male suspect wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and ski mask displayed a handgun and took a quantity of cash from the register before fleeing the area northbound on North Albany Street.

The incident comes just days after a similar robbery at the Byrne Dairy convenience store on North Meadow Street.

And a five-month-old reindeer named Little Buddy is back home and on the mend after life-saving treatment at Cornell University’s equine and farm animal hospital, including a blood transfusion from his brother, Moose.

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