The search for a Connecticut man who vanished after partying in New York City over the weekend has turned into a homicide investigation stretching across three states after a body was recovered on Wednesday on the Jersey Shore.
The man, Joseph Comunale, 26, of Stamford, was reported missing late Sunday after he did not return home, his father, Patsy Comunale, said.
The New York Police Department said Mr. Comunale had last been seen around 7 a.m. on Sunday at a luxury apartment building, the Grand Sutton, at 418 East 59th Street on the East Side of Manhattan. Mr. Comunale had gone to the building around 4 a.m. with a few men and women he met in Greenwich Village on Saturday night, Robert K. Boyce, the chief of detectives, said.
A man who lived at the Grand Sutton was taken into custody on Tuesday, and Chief Boyce described him as a suspect. The man was not cooperating with the police investigation under the advice of his lawyer, the chief said, and was being held at the 17th Precinct station house on an unrelated charge of operating a car without a license.
“He is someone who took part in removing the body,” Chief Boyce said.
Investigators found “a substantial amount of blood evidence” in the building and in plastic bags that had been tossed down a garbage chute, according to Chief Boyce, who said the items recovered included bloody sheets, towels and clothing that belonged to Mr. Comunale.
The investigation led the authorities on Wednesday to Oceanport, N.J., where a body was found in a shallow grave, Chief Boyce said. An autopsy was performed, the chief said, and dental records would be used to identify the person.
At the Grand Sutton on Wednesday, investigators searched a garden beside the building, then went to a fourth-floor residence and surveyed the same scene from a window. The area was later cordoned off with crime scene tape.