A body found in Lake Ontario has been identified as Max Maisel, the missing son of ESPN journalist, Ivan Maisel.
A fisherman spotted the body about 7.30 p.m. Friday floating in the water about 200 yards from a U.S. Coast Guard station off Saint Paul Boulevard in Irondequoit, New York, according to USA Today. Police say the cause of death is still unclear.
The 21-year-old was last seen at his family’s lake house near Rochester, New York, on Feb. 22. His relatives suspected suicide.
The family later held a memorial for the Rochester Institute of Technology student in March, which was attended by 900 loved ones.
“We knew this day would come, and we are relieved that it has,” a statement from Maisel’s father and his wife, Meg Murray, said Monday via Twitter. “But it is merely the postscript to our sad story. We have mourned Max from the night that the Rochester police called to tell us he was missing. There was no other plausible solution to the puzzle he left behind.”
Maisel posted a heartbreaking eulogy on the website Medium on April 1 titled “Remembering Max” in which he said: “Max’s death has shone a light on the innate goodness in people, a quality that I am sure I didn’t appreciate until now… I think of that as a gift from our son. I have to say, Max, that on the whole, I would have preferred a dozen golf balls.” The college sports expert also revealed that his son “always marched to his own beat.”
Maisel was seen leaving the Perkins Green campus apartment complex in Henrietta, New York, and his car was found near the Charlotte Pier the following day. Police, the Coast Guard and numerous other agencies were involved in an almost month-long search for him that was called off on March 16.
On Monday, Ivan Maisel tweeted a photo of a rainbow over the spot where his son was last seen.
Pier where Max last seen. Very cool. RT @aladue76: @Ivan_Maisel This was taken today. Immediately thought of Max. http://t.co/DgCYMyXTkn
— Ivan Maisel (@Ivan_Maisel) April 21, 2015
Read the full statement below.
We would like to thank the U.S. Coast Guard and the Rochester Police Department, including the Office of the Medical Examiner, for their work over the weekend to remove Max’s remains from Lake Ontario and make a positive identification. We appreciate everything they, as well as so many other public safety officials in the region, have done for us over the last eight weeks.
We knew this day would come, and we are relieved that it has. But it is merely the postscript to our sad story. We have mourned Max from the night that the Rochester police called to tell us he was missing. There was no other plausible solution to the puzzle he left behind.
Now we must get on with living with this hole in our lives.
Death cannot take away the love we continue to have for our son and the love that our daughters have for their brother. Death will not rob us of that.
We have our memories of a sweet boy who grew into a sensitive, caring young man. We have his photography, a record of the talent he had just begun to develop. We have the care and concern of family and friends in our home of Fairfield, CT, and across the country. Here again, we must say thanks to the people of Rochester and Monroe County, who took our devastating news and made it their own. Whatever gratitude we express here is wholly inadequate.
And we have how desperately we miss him. That will not go away.
Ivan Maisel and Meg Murray