HOBOKEN – The investigation into how deceased jogger Andrew Jarzyk ended up in the Hudson River on the morning of March 30 has been closed, the Hoboken police sergeant handling the case said on Friday.
The police said on Wednesday that there were no initial signs of foul play. The final results of an autopsy have not been released. It is still not known how Jarzyk ended up in the water.
Sgt. Anthony Falco Jr., who has been handling the case since Jarzyk went missing, said that the police are no longer investigating.
“We did all the investigating we could from the start,” he said on Friday morning. “You could come up with 9,000 scenarios of what happened, but it’d still all be speculation.”
Falco said that when Jarzyk was pulled from the river, he had no personal items on him other than clothing. Falco also said that the police assume he jogged onto Pier A and never made it off the pier.
The North Regional Medical Examiner’s Office in Newark, which is performing the autopsy, has not yet released an official cause of death.
Jarzyk, who was 27, disappeared a month ago, shortly after 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 30, after he went for a jog along the Hoboken waterfront.
Before that, he had been relaxing with friends at the West Five Supper Club near his home on the west side of the mile-square city. He left the club around 1 a.m. early Sunday morning and went a few blocks home to change for a run. Then he headed east to the Hoboken waterfront. He was training for a half marathon that was held this past weekend.
He was spotted on a video from a restaurant near the waterfront jogging near Pier A Park in Hoboken. The park is a popular spot on the south waterfront for joggers. There was no video of him after that. Police searched the water for several days, but could not find an indication of what happened to Jarzyk.
On Monday evening, April 28, someone spotted a body at the ferry slips in back of the historic Hoboken train terminal. The terminal is directly south of Pier A. Both are at the most southeastern point of Hoboken, near Jersey City.
The railing around the perimeter of Pier A and the neighboring train/ferry terminal area is at least three feet high and has no gaps in that area.
In a message on Facebook on Tuesday, the family said, in part, “At this time we do not have answers into why Andrew’s life ended at such a young age. Please be accepting to the fact we may never have these answers. As humans, we are resilient. We will get through this together. Do not walk this path alone. Seek comfort in others. Express your feelings to others. Hug others that are hurting just like you. Be grateful every day that you do see the beautiful sun rise in the sky again. Most importantly, keep Andrew in your hearts.”
A relative also posted a video tribute on Friday on the Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/groups/1392471697696665/. A friend also suggested starting a half marathon in his honor next year.
For more on this story, see this weekend’s print edition of the Hoboken Reporter. Those articles are also available on the lower half of hudsonreporter.com Sunday morning. – Dean DeChiaro
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