A body was pulled today from the Passaic River, though it is not yet clear whether it’s that of a man reported missing earlier this week.
Kearny Police Capt. Timothy Wagner says the Kearny PD were notified May 26 a deceased human body was found at around 11 a.m. on the Newark side of the Passaic River near the Jackson Street Bridge. Newark police are leading the investigation into the recovery.
Formal identification of the person recovered is pending an examination by the Northern Regional Medical Examiner’s Office. However, Kearny police have called off their search for missing man Hector L. Nieves, 33, of Belleville, because of the consistencies between Nieves’s description and that of the recovered person.
Police Chief George King offers his condolences to those touched by this tragedy and thanks the many public safety agencies who participated in this search and recovery effort, including the Kearny Fire Department, Jersey City Police Department, Bergen County Sheriff’s Office, Newark Department of Public Safety and the New Jersey State Police.
Editor’s note: The Observer did not report the body being pulled from the river earlier today because the information was, at the time, unconfirmed.
Learn more about the writer ...
Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.