Body of Fairfield's Max Maisel Found in New York; Family Issues Statement

Rochester police have confirmed that the body of Fairfield’s Max Maisel has been found.

The medical examiner’s office identified the body that was found Friday, April 17, by the U.S. Coast Guard and Rochester Police Department near the shore of Lake Ontario in Rochester, New York, as Maisel, who was last seen Feb. 22 and was presumed to have drowned.

The Democrat and Chronicle newspaper reports the cause of Maisel’s death is still unclear.

Maisel’s body was spotted floating in the water by a fisherman at about 7:30 p.m., according to the Democrat and Chronicle.

Maisel, 21, the son of ESPN senior writer Ivan Maisel and Meg Murray, was a third-year professional photographic illustration student at RIT.

• Related: Ivan Maisel Eulogizes Missing Son in Touching Tribute

Rochester police had searched for Maisel for more than three weeks at the Charlotte pier at Lake Ontario where he was last seen before the search was called off on March 17.

His parents issued the following statement on Monday:

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, Connecticut, 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