Who should pay for the damage to my car, and how should I go about acquiring this money?

Last night, I attended a party at a colleague’s house. There were about 30 people in attendance, all of whom I know, at least tangentially. (Most are in my department or one of several related departments…so they could all be tracked down.)

The majority of people parked in a random parking area behind my colleague’s house. Everyone ended up blocking everyone else in. Around 1:30am, I was ready to leave, and I had had a few drinks, so I decided to be responsible and call a cab. I then left my car key with the person whose house it was in case my car needed to be moved to let someone out.

Today, I returned to my colleague’s house to retrieve my car. There is a gigantic dent on the left front bumper. This was not there when I left my car last night. I just bought this car two months ago…it’s an adorable silver Honda Civic, and I love it to pieces. While it still functions perfectly fine, I don’t want to just accept the existence of the dent in my front bumper… It looks like someone drove into something.

The person whose house it was was entirely unaware of this accident occurring. He is unsure who moved my car. He did say, however, that another attendee had informed him of damage to her car as well. As of yet, no one has come forward to either one of us.

The other girl just sent out an email to the party attendees, and I replied-all about my car situation as well.

How should I proceed from here? I really don’t want to have to feel guilty about holding another person responsible for this. I think I should expect someone to man up and pay for the damage…even though they were technically “doing me a favor” by moving my car. I was being responsible by getting a cab, and I shouldn’t have to suffer car damage because of it, right?

How would this situation work with insurance, people, etc.? Any advice?

Also, does anyone know how much it would generally cost to replace the front bumper of a Honda Civic?