The 49-year-old man has been identified as Paul Machettia of the City of Poughkeepsie.
Macchettia entered the water to help after one of five people who entered the Hudson River began to struggle to stay afloat. The swimmer who was in distress recovered by Machettia failed to resurface.
At about noontime on Tuesday, the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office responded to the Hudson River off of Victor C. Waryas Park to assist the City of Poughkeepsie Police Department and Fire Department after receiving a report of a missing swimmer.
As of 6 p.m. Sunday, the active search for Machiettia will be suspended pending further developments.
Since Tuesday, an extensive search of the Hudson River off of the City of Poughkeepsie shoreline has been conducted.
Various search methods were used, including aerial search by helicopters, surface searches by boats and underwater searches utilizing sonar and police divers.
Over the six-day search, participating agencies included the City of Poughkeepsie Police Department, City of Poughkeepsie Fire Department, Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office, Dutchess County Regional Underwater Search and Recovery Team, Ulster County Sheriff’s Office, New York State Police, New York State Park Police and the United States Coast Guard.
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