January 24, 1995 (~estimated)
Rescuers find body in Princeton
By Peter Page
Staff Writer
PRINCETON TOWNSHIP — A search-and-rescue operation that involved scores of volunteers ended yesterday when a man missing since Friday was discovered dead in Stony Brook, officials said.
Volunteers from the Princeton Fire Department and the Princeton First Aid Rescue Squad. scouring the banks of the brook with the aid a trained search dog, found the body of William E. Dey. 67, of Brearly Road, said township police Lt. Mario Musso.
Dey’s body was found in the brook between Mercer Road and Route 206 at 11:12a.m., a little more than an hour after the search began, Musso said. That portion of the brook is not easily accessible to hikers. He credited the search dog, named Judah, and the handler, Debbie Schadt of West Jersey Search and Rescue Service, with finding Dey’s body.
“The dog was instrumental in finding the body,” Musso said.
Dey was reported missing Friday afternoon by his wife, Roswitha Dey, who told police he had left the house at about 10 a.m. Roswitha Dey told police she grew concerned when her husband did not return because he had been depressed recently.
Police in the area were alerted to watch for Dey’s blue 1989 Merceder. At 4:20p.m. Friday a pedestrian reported finding the car about 100 feet from Stony Brook near the foot path between Rosedale and Edgerstoune roads. The car door was open and the engine running when the person found it, Musso said.
POLICE ESTABLISHED a command post at Johnson Park School off Rosedale Road and organized a search using trained dogs and handlers from the Palisades Search and Rescue Canine Service, South Brunswick Police Canine Unit and West Jersey Search and Rescue. Other volunteers came from the Princeton First Aid Ladies Auxiliary, Princeton First Aid Rescue Squad, Princeton Fire Department, Hopewell Borough Fire Co., Kingstone Fire Department, Princeton Junction Fire Co., Lawrenceville Fire Co, and the township police.
The search was halted at midnight and then resumed yesterday at 10 a.m. from a staging area at Princeton Battlefield Park.
The spot where Dey’s body was found is one to two miles from where his car was located, Musso said. It is likely Dey’s body was pulled downstream by the rain-swollen stream after entering the water upstream, he said.
“More than likely, he didn’t enter the water where they found him,” Musso said.
There were no obvious signs of foul play, and the precise cause of death is undetermined pending an autopsy by the Mercer County Medical Examiner, Musso said.
There were no obvious signs of foul play, and the precise cause of death is undetermined pending an autopsy by the Mercer County Medical Examiner, Musso said.
The search was under the command of township Po-lice Chief Anthony Gaylord and Fire Chief Robert Toole. Nearly 100 rescuers were involved in the search.