The body of a Wall Street Journal reporter who has been missing for 14 months was found this week frozen in a New Jersey river, authorities report.
David Bird, 55, a reporter for the Journal for over 20 years, was reported missing on January 11, 2014. Relatives say the writer went for a walk near his Long Hill Township, N.J. home and disappeared.
A large scale search, including tracking dogs, was performed immediately after the writer went missing, but the search failed to turn up any trace of the missing man.
Not long after Bird disappeared the family thought they had a clue as to what happened to him when a fraudulent credit card purchase was made in Mexico. But authorities later said that the credit card number had only been hacked and it wasn’t likely that the card was actually in Mexico.
Still, since the early days of the missing persons case, no evidence at all emerged until this week when some boaters spied a winter coat hung up on some debris in the Passaic River. The authorities were immediately called to investigate.
Police now report that the body has been identified through dental records as that of the missing journalist.
“The Bird family would like to thank the many members of law enforcement, especially Chief Michael Mazzeo and the Long Hill Township Police Department, for their tireless efforts to find David,” family spokeswoman Carolyn Buscarino said in a statement. “They would also like to thank the countless friends, neighbors and strangers who have prayed for David and for the family over the past 14 months.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
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