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Body Pulled From Hackensack River ID'd As Missing Palisades Park Man

UPDATE: For days, a Palisades Park detective searched in vain for a troubled borough man whose worried wife had reported him missing.

The Winant Avenue (Route 46) Bridge over the Hackensack River.

The Winant Avenue (Route 46) Bridge over the Hackensack River.

Photo Credit: Googlemaps

Detective Alex Monteleone sent alerts to local law enforcement agencies, asked Port Authority and Palisades Interstate Parkway police to keep a lookout and called area hospitals.

A GPS search for the missing man's Lexus at the bridges and tunnels and throughout the state returned nothing.

There was no trace of the 51-year-old resident for days after he left his house without a word last Monday, depressed over health issues.

Until this weekend.

The Hackensack River was at low tide when a truck driver flagged down patrolling Little Ferry Police Sgt. John Schwedhelm around 3 p.m. Saturday.

He pointed the sergeant to what appeared to be two legs sticking out of the water behind an Industrial Avenue building about a mile down-river from the Winant Avenue Bridge (Route 46).

The Asian man appeared to be in his 50s and wasn't carrying any identification.

The Bergen County Medical Examiner's Office positively identified him as the missing Palisades Park resident, said Capt. Anthony Espino, the officer in charge of the department.

Although his body was recovered, the Lexus was still missing, Espino said.

The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office is investigating the circumstances of the man's death, with support from the medical examiner, Little Ferry and Palisades Park police and the Bergen County Sheriff's Bureau of Criminal Identification, which collected evidence.

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