KEARNY –
A Kearny man became the 16th such fatality of the year when, police say, he jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge on Oct. 22.
Port Authority spokesman Joe Pentangelo said that the PAPD received a call, at 5:27 p.m., that a man – later identified as Eric Duenas, 25, of Kearny – driving eastbound across the bridge exited his car, a 2008 Saturn, near the N.J. Tower’s south walk and leaped over the railing.
At 5:50 p.m., Pentangelo said, PAPD Harbor Units recovered the man’s body north of the bridge, brought the body to the 125th St. Pier and then to St. Luke’s Hospital where Duenas was pronounced dead at 6:08 p.m.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated P.A. investigation into the Oct. 2 death of 19-year-old Brian Palacio of Kearny at the Grove St. PATH station in Jersey City, Pentangelo told The Observer last week that the cause of death had still not been received from the medical examiner’s office in New Jersey and that the results of toxicological reports were also being awaited.
However, Pentangelo said that PAPD detectives were able to conclude, based on their investigation, that Palacio “was struck by a train, he was alone at the time of the incident and we are not seeking anyone else” in connection with the death.
In attempting to retrace the victim’s movements leading up to his demise, Pentangelo said that detectives determined – on the basis of reviewing swipe card records — that Palacio had boarded a PATH train at the 34th St. station in Manhattan at 9:35 p.m. on Oct. 2 enroute, to New Jersey.
At about 10 p.m., PAPD were alerted via a call from the engineer of a train pulling out of the Grove St. station that there was a body on the tracks, Pentangelo said.
PATH workers found that Palacio’s body had been dragged along the tracks, he added, so detectives surmised that the teen may have been between cars on the train at the time of the incident.
Palacio, a 2015 Kearny High School graduate, had been attending classes at Hudson County Community College.
