Rochester Police Call Off Water Search for Fairfield's Max Maisel; Family Issues Statement

The water search for Fairfield’s Max Maisel was called off by the Rochester Police Department on Tuesday.

Crews had been searching for Maisel for more than three weeks at the Charlotte pier at Lake Ontario where he was last seen.

Rochester Police Department Investigator Jacqueline Shuman told the Democrat & Chronicle that they have “exhausted all of our leads pertaining to the water search.”

Maisel, 21, was last seen the night of Sunday, Feb. 22, after leaving the Perkins Green apartment complex at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York where he was a third-year professional photographic illustration student at RIT.

Maisel is the son of ESPN senior writer Ivan Maisel and Meg Murray.

The family is planning a memorial service and a celebration of Max’s life on Friday, March 27 at Congregation Bnai Israel in Bridgeport.

The family released the following statement on Tuesday:

We want to express our eternal gratitude to the men and women of the law enforcement agencies who contributed untold hours and resources to the search for our son Max Maisel. Since the night of Feb. 22, the Rochester Police Department, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs, and the Border Patrol have searched on land, in the lake and the river, and through the air.

They searched when treacherous weather said they shouldn’t. They searched when common sense said they shouldn’t. They combed some sections of the waterfront more than a dozen times. We appreciate their collective effort and the resources that the people of Rochester and Monroe County have devoted to finding Max.

More than three weeks in, the searchers share our frustration. The evidence suggests that Max went into the water off the Charlotte pier. Max is not where the evidence suggests he should be.

We appreciate the compassion and professionalism of the men and women with whom we have dealt, from the detectives to the scuba team to Police Chief Mike Ciminelli. The sheriff’s office personnel showed the same kind of sensitivity. The RIT community has overcome its own shock and disbelief to rush to our aid. Administrators, security personnel and Max’s professors have been generous with their time and with the university’s resources. We thank all of you.

As we, all of us, wait for some sign of Max, the caring and concern we have felt in Rochester has made us appreciate this community in a way that we couldn’t have imagined. In this, the darkest hour of our lives, we have seen so much good in people. We will never forget your kindness.

Ivan Maisel and Meg Murray

March 17, 2015