Marine units and other law enforcement personnel from around the East End were still searching this week for a 31-year-old Queens man, Dario Cholula, who went missing on the evening of Oct. 19 while fishing off North Haven in a small kayak.
Mr. Cholula, who had been staying at a residence at 370 Ferry Road, pushed off onto Sag Harbor Bay, south of Tyndall Point, at around 9. "It was discovered on the morning of Oct. 20, 2022, that Dario never returned," Southampton police reported on Thursday afternoon. He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans, and was last seen between 9 and 11 p.m., they said.
Residents reported intensive police activity in the area last week as news of Mr. Cholula's disappearance spread. Suffolk County police helicopters were seen circling the area where he may have been fishing, Southampton Town drones were spotted searching, and a police dive team member was seen pulling into the parking lot at North Haven Village Hall.
Agencies involved in the search included Sag Harbor Village Marine Patrol units and Marine Patrol from the Town of Southampton, East Hampton, Shelter Island, and Southold, as well as the Coast Guard.
In a missing persons bulletin issued on Friday, Southampton police subsequently reported that "the red kayak that Dario was using was located approximately 1,000 feet south of the residence he left from and was partially overturned in the water with a fishing pole inside of the kayak." A police spokeswoman, Lt. Susan Ralph, said via email on Friday evening that units from Southampton, Sag Harbor, and Shelter Island were continuing the search.
In a Monday follow-up email, she said there was "nothing new to report."
Missing-person signs were posted around the area over the weekend and early this week, describing the missing kayaker as a Latino male weighing about 160 pounds and standing 5 feet 6 inches tall.
The search for Mr. Cholula, a worker at a nearby construction site, was launched last Thursday morning after Bettina Stelle, who was walking her dog, came upon the red kayak, upended and with a fishing pole wedged in it, at a semi-isolated beach on North Haven. Ms. Stelle, a longtime North Haven resident, reasoned that the night before had been quite windy and assumed the kayak had been caught in the wind.
She texted her husband, Fred, suggesting that they secure the kayak at their house nearby and try to find the owner. "You think, it probably just fell off someone's dock," she said by phone this week.
"I tipped it over and dragged it out — it wasn't all the way in the water — and let the water pour out. Then I continued on my way, and on the way back home, I saw three guys on the beach standing next to the craft, Latino guys, and they asked, 'Did you see anybody?' "
"They told me one of their colleagues went fishing last night. And I said, 'We've got to call the police right now.'"
