Police Chief Skeptical of Quick ID on Body

A badly decomposed corpse found on the shore of Gardiner's Bay in Amagansett on May 21 remains unidentified.

A local resident walking dogs that day found what appeared to be human remains at the water's edge. The Suffolk medical examiner's office said that they were of a man with a slight build and between 20 and 30 years old.

East Hampton Town Police Chief Ed Ecker said Friday that three possibilities top his list of leads as to its identity, including Ward Wickens, a commercial fisherman who fell overboard on May 3 off the southern coast of Nova Scotia, as well as two individuals reported missing from Point Judith, Rhode Island.

Chief Ecker remains skeptical that a swift correlation of the body with any particular missing persons report will be possible. The town police continue to work on the case with Rhode Island detectives and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Barrington, N.S.