Putnam County Sheriff Donald B. Smith reports that a Patterson man who was reported missing late yesterday (June 1st) was found dead today in an apparent suicide.

Mr. Dariusz Maslosz, aged 49, was found dead this afternoon (Thursday) in the Cranberry Mountain Wildlife Management Area, a 1,085-acre state forest preserve in Patterson. Pending an autopsy and formal ruling by the Coroner’s Office as to the cause of death, investigators have preliminarily determined that Mr. Maslosz died from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Mr. Maslosz’s family called the Sheriff’s Office to report him missing at about 10:00 P.M. on June 1st. They told sheriff’s deputies that he was last seen at home earlier that day and that he apparently left the house on his motorcycle, taking a licensed handgun with him. Relatives said that he had seemed depressed lately and that they were concerned for his welfare.

Relatives told deputies that Mr. Maslosz was an avid fisherman and hunter, and said that he frequented several hunting and fishing areas in Putnam County, including the Cranberry Mountain preserve, located off Stagecoach Road in Patterson. Shortly after receiving that information, Deputy Sheriff Vincent Dalo checked and found Mr. Maslosz’s motorcycle parked unattended along Stage Coach Road, near a blazed hiking trail leading into the heavily wooded preserve.

A search of the preserve for Mr. Maslosz was commenced. A search party of approximately 40 personnel was mustered, including sheriff’s deputies and investigators, state troopers, state environmental conservation officers and state forest rangers. Sheriff’s Office and state police tracking dogs were deployed and a state police helicopter did an aerial overflight of the preserve looking for the missing man.

At about 2:30 P.M. today, a state police dog led members of the search party to a hilltop ledge about 50 yards off a blazed hiking trail in the preserve, where Mr. Maslosz’s body was found. The body was located nearly one and a half miles from where the man’s motorcycle was left parked. A handgun was recovered from the scene.

The Putnam County Coroner’s Office pronounced Mr. Maslosz dead at the scene. Members of the Patterson Volunteer Fire Department assisted in the removal of the body from the preserve and the body was taken to the morgue at Putnam Hospital Center in Carmel, where an autopsy will be performed. A sheriff’s investigator notified Mr. Maslosz’s next of kin of his death.