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Nadem Aksoy, 50, of Bordentown and a friend were fishing in their kayaks on the Navesink River in Monmouth County when the storm blew in around midnight, his brother, Mujdad, told News 12.
He "looked at his phone, the storm was coming, and then he called his friend [who] was on [a] kayak too,” his brother said.
The friend saw Aksoy’s kayak flip over and Aksoy trying to hold onto it, Mujdad said.
“After that he didn’t see him,” he said.
The search initially began under and around the Route 35 bridge -- which crosses the river between Middletown and Rumson -- when someone spotted the empty kayak and called police shortly before 4:25 a.m.
Among those searching were the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Dive Team, the U.S. Coast Guard Station in Sandy Hook and New Jersey State Police Marine Task Force. Also responding, among others, were Rumson and New Brunswick.
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