OLD BRIDGE — The body of an Alzheimer’s patient, who disappeared from Raritan Bay Medical Center’s Old Bridge division on Dec. 29, was found Saturday in a wooded area of the Deep Run development, police said.
According to Old Bridge Police Capt. Robert Bonfante, the body of George Sharo, 79, was found approximately 100 feet from Lark Drive on Saturday afternoon by a small group of neighborhood residents who were walking in the woods near Deep Run Creek. Police were notified of the discovery at approximately 4:15 p.m., Bonfante said.
The area where Sharo’s body was found, located behind the Deep Run shopping center on Route 9, is approximately one mile from the hospital, located at Route 18 and Ferry Road.
Police responding to the call found Sharo’s body submerged in the creek from the waist down. The upper part of Sharo’s body was leaning against a small island in the creek, Bonfante said.
On Dec. 29, Sharo had been brought to Raritan Bay to be treated for hypothermia after he walked outside of the Woodhaven Rest Home in Monroe Township, where he resided. Nursing home workers found him outdoors in subfreezing temperatures eight hours later and arranged for Sharo to be taken to the hospital for treatment.
In the days after he disappeared from the emergency room at the hospital, police had been searching the 42-square-mile township for Sharo, a military veteran described by investigators as having a penchant for hiding in obscure places. In particular, police and emergency personnel had concentrated on searching wooded areas via helicopter and by using thermal-imaging, a means of finding a person by detecting the body heat they emanate. However, Bonfante believes that once Sharo’s body was partially submerged in the freezing water, his body temperature might have plummeted and he would have been harder to detect.
Bonfante noted that the creek is 21/2 feet deep in some places.
Paramedics responding to the scene made a preliminary determination that Sharo died from hypothermia, Bonfante said. The Middlesex County medical examiner was performing an autopsy on the body, he said.
The South Old Bridge Fire Department also assisted police in recovering Sharo’s body, Bonfante said.
Sharo is survived by a son in Colorado and a sister in California. He was predeceased by a brother, Joseph. No other details about Sharo or his survivors were available at press time.
Citing patient confidentiality, officials at the nursing home where Sharo resided would not comment on where he had lived prior to his admission at the nursing home, or about his next of kin.
Old Bridge Police Detective John Grossman is continuing an investigation of the case.