The search for a teen-ager suspected of slaying a college student whose body was found in her bathtub spread through New England Monday as reported sightings flooded the police station of this wary town. ``We've even had people call in sightings that turned out to be farmers walking down dirt roads and of one little girl on a road,'' said Police Chief David McCarthy. Tensions had been running high for days in the town of 18,000, especially since published accounts quoting sources as saying the suspect had a fascination with a Halloween horror movie. A cinema agreed to suspend the showing of a new horror film, ``Halloween IV,'' and selectmen voted Friday to hold trick-or-treating in broad daylight Sunday, a day early. McCarthy said he has sent out 1,000 photographs of Mark Branch to other police forces in New England. Branch, 19, disappeared shortly after the stabbing death of Greenfield Community College student Sharon Gregory, 18. Her body was discovered in her tub on Oct. 21 by her sister. ``This subject should be considered armed and dangerous,'' said a state police bulletin, according to The Recorder of Greenfield. ``Info received ... indicates this subject may kill again.'' The bulletin said Gregory was stabbed in the back and head with a knife that McCarthy said has not been found. He said Gregory was not sexually assaulted. The chief described Branch as ``a loner. He was a different type of individual,'' adding: ``A lot of people didn't like the kid.'' He stressed, however, that investigators have found no link between Branch's alleged taste for horror films and the slaying. A state police investigator said sightings were reported as far away as Enfield, Conn., 50 miles to the south of the western Massachusetts town. Police have searched for Branch since his car was discovered abandoned on a back road in nearby Buckland a day after Gregory's body was found. Over the weekend, however, a manhunt in Buckland was called off because 30 searchers and trained dogs turned up nothing. ``I think it would be very reasonable to assume Branch has gone from the area,'' McCarthy said. ``Twenty-five hours elapsed between the time of the murder and the time we found his car.'' Newspapers have reported that Branch was a fan of the ``Friday the 13th'' movie series, in which a character named Jason committed a Halloween night massacre. And they cited unnamed sources as saying police found Jason costume paraphernalia in Branch's home, including a hockey goalie mask and black boots. Police have refused to comment on their search and the search warrant they used has been impounded. McCarthy said his detectives reviewed the ``Friday the 13th'' movies to try to find a connection with the slaying. Police have no evidence that Gregory's slayer may have acted as Jason, ``no paraphernalia left at the scene of the crime, no notes, nothing,'' McCarthy said. ``This was a brutal murder, but it had nothing to do with any ritual involving Satanism, Jason, Friday the 13th.'' McCarthy said he tripled the number of police cars on patrol for Halloween, but expected no trouble. ``I spent four days trying to clear up the fear frenzy that has run rampant in this town,'' he said. ``I think by now the town has come off this fear thing.''
