The Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office was notified by the family of Andrew Tyler Neckles on Tuesday, Sept. 22 that it had not heard from him and he had not returned from a boat trip on the Hudson on Sunday, Sept. 20.
Dutchess County Sheriff Capt. John Watterson said the Office’s Marine Patrol Unit responded to the area to search the water on Tuesday night, while deputies on the ground searched the shore for Neckles without success.
While conducting the initial search, a deputy needed to get close to the railroad tracks to search a specific area, Watterson said, and he inadvertently placed his vehicle too close to the tracks, and it was sideswiped by a northbound Metro-North train.
Neither the deputy nor the train’s passengers were injured during the crash, which is still being investigated.
The initial search, which centered on a stretch of the water in the Town of Wappinger, was called for the night at around midnight and picked up the following morning on Wednesday, Sept. 23.
Shortly after the second search resumed on Wednesday, a Marine Patrol unit located a man fitting Neckles’ description near the western shore of the Hudson River.
Watterson said the scene is still under investigation, and the body has tentatively been identified as Neckles, though the Dutchess County Medical Examiner’s Office will make the final decision.
The investigation into the crash and fatal Hudson River boating incident are both still under investigation.
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