Crime & Safety

State Police Investigating if Body Found in Shrewsbury River is Missing Clammer

Autopsy is being conducted by Monmouth County Medical Examiner


A body that was recovered Monday afternoon in the Shrewsbury River could be that of missing clammer Edward Broderick, state police said.

However, while some dental records have been examined for a match, there is "no positive ID," and the matter is still under investigation pending the results of an autopsy by the Monmouth County Medical Examiner's Office, State Police Sgt. Adam Grossman said on Tuesday morning. The autopsy, he added, has been scheduled.

For now, all that state police, the lead agency in the investigation, could confirm was that "a body was recovered in Shrewsbury River at about 2:25 p.m. on Monday near the Route 36 Highlands bridge (know officially the Captain Joseph Azzolina Memorial Bridge)." The decomposed body had been spotted by fishermen in the area.

Grossman said that police could not estimate how long the body had been in the water.

Broderick, a 38-year-old Sea Bright resident who was a boater and clammer working out of the depuration plants in Highlands and Sea Bright, went missing on Dec. 14.

His submerged boat was recovered from the Captain Cove Marina in Highlands, the spot where friends had told police Broderick was expected to dock.

The state police had been searching the Highlands vicinity in the Shrewsbury River, "where we believed he may have gone into the water," since the boat was recovered a couple of days after Broderick went missing, Grossman said.

Side sonar equipment was used to scan the floor of the bay and surrounding area of the sunken boat to ensure that Broderick was not trapped in it.

On Sunday, it was determined that remains that had been found in Sandy Hook Bay on Saturday were not human, State Police Sgt. Brian Polite had said.

The Broderick case is still under investigation by the state police, Grossman said, with Sea Bright police handling the missing persons aspect of it.



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