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Body found in river, may be missing man
Phil Helsel, Register Staff
09/04/2007
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-NEW HAVEN — A body believed to be that of a man missing since early Saturday was found floating in the Quinnipiac River near the Waucoma Yacht Club Monday afternoon, officials said.Police had not confirmed the man’s identity, but a group of distraught young people who clung to a chain-link fence on Front Street watching the recovery feared that it was Steven Fitch, 22, of Judith Terrace, who has been missing since Saturday morning.Advertisement
New Haven police dive teams and a West Haven police boat spent the weekend searching the river for the man, who was reported missing just before 3 a.m. Saturday by an ex-girlfriend.The woman told police that she and Fitch fell asleep at a nearby park, and when she awoke, Fitch was gone and she feared that he committed suicide by jumping into the river, authorities and friends said. The body was found about 3 p.m. Monday."We’re not really sure what happened yet, but from the call that came in, the indication was that it may have been suicide," Jessica Mayorga, a spokeswoman for the city, said. "We’re going to have to investigate it further and see what the (medical examiner) says before we can rule out foul play."An autopsy on the body is scheduled for today.Any suggestion that Fitch may have committed suicide was met with disbelief by Fitch’s current girlfriend, 19-year-old Jessica Valentin of Quinnipiac Avenue, who fainted on Front Street as the recovery was under way Monday.Others gathered around her.Fitch, who grew up in Norwalk and moved to New Haven about two years ago, had become a team leader at a local Lowe’s home improvement store and was also working a side construction job, and was happy with the way his life had recently been going, those gathered said."Everything was going good for him," said Brian Martin, 23, who said he has known Fitch for 12 years, going back to when they both were growing up in Norwalk. "I’ve been hearing all this stuff about him being depressed, but that’s bull. … He would never even joke like that."Valentin said she’s been dating Fitch for a couple of months, and that she was in New York City when he disappeared.Stricken by grief, Valentin said, "I don’t know, I was in New York for a couple of days and he was hanging out with his ex-girlfriend. He was always happy when he was with me; if I would have been here …"She, Martin, and others gathered across the street as police recovered the body said Fitch called home and said he was on his way back just minutes before the woman, who was not identified by police, called police to report him missing.Police wouldn’t comment on the case Monday.Martin said that he and others went to the park where Fitch was last seen and they found the ex-girlfriend’s car, a silver 1996 Mitsubishi Eclipse, still parked nearby.Fitch had left a backpack that "he always had with him" containing his work clothes, Martin said, but his cell phone and wallet were missing.©New Haven Register 2007
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