The body of a missing 24-year-old Long Branch resident was recovered in Swimming River Reservoir by members of the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office Maritime Emergency Response Team (MERT).
The victim, Jose M. Urbina Contreras, was hiking with a group of people on the trail in the county park leading to the reservoir, which runs along the border of the park on Newman Springs Road in the township and Brookdale Community College, before going into the water, police said.
The Monmouth County 911 Communications Center received a call on Saturday reporting a missing person, who was identified as a male who went swimming in the water.
A search was conducted by the Middletown police, fire departments, EMS and OEM, the Monmouth County Sheriff’s campus protection unit, Drone Unit, MERT and OEM, the Monmouth County Parks System, Holmdel OEM drone unit, New Jersey State Police aviation unit and the Colts Neck Police Department.
The search was suspended at 11:30 pm Saturday and resumed Sunday morning when divers from MERT found Contreras’s body.
Swimming River Reservoir, located on the border of Colts Neck, Holmdel and Lincroft, is a terminus for the Swimming River and other small tributaries.
According to the Middletown Police Department, the victim was found submerged under about 20 feet of water, roughly 50 feet from the shoreline.
Police determined that the swimmer’s group had followed a trail from Thompson Park to reach the reservoir, on the outskirts of the Monmouth County Park System.