Paddle boater missing in Mahwah, NJ lake, police say

MAHWAH — A man who lost his balance and fell off his paddle board on Dators Pond never resurfaced and could not be located by scuba teams early Monday evening, according to Mahwah police.

Three responding police officers immediately dove into the water around 6:45 p.m., frantically trying to find the 24-year-old Mahwah man in the pond's thick, dense vegetation.

Mahwah Fire Company #1's scuba team also searched the water, along with divers from over a dozen units from surrounding towns who used drones, sonar devices and cadaver dogs as part of their search.

The search was called off at darkness due to difficult terrain under the water and was slated to resume Tuesday morning.

The man's older brother made it out of the water, according to police.

A fisherman told NBC New York that the man was among five people on the pond and that no one in the group appeared to know how to swim.

Mahwah police on Tuesday afternoon said divers located the man's body in Dators Pond after an "extensive and systematic search."

It was the second water incident in Mahwah within the past week. Kevin Acevedo, 21 of Maywood swimming with a friend in Darlington Lake on Thursday night died after he struggled and had to be rescued from the water, authorities said.

Another North Jersey resident also was lost in a water accident over the weekend.

Corey Molinari, of the Whippany section of Hanover, died early Sunday morning in Barnegat Bay after he fell off a pontoon boat that hit a marker.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ