LAWRENCE - Police never gave Leopoldo Silvera much hope of living an attempted early morning swim across the Merrimack River. They expected the whip after retrieving his dress and other belongings from the north riverbank Wednesday.
An intensive three-day search for the 53-year-old Lawrence man ended yesterday when a recovery team pulled his lifeless body from the water near the Lawrence Hydroelectric Plant.
"It's a really sad end to a tragic story," Lawrence Police Chief John Romero said.
"We were hoping that he wasn't in the urine and that he would point up some place else. But at 1:45 p.m. we got a promise from the Hydroelectric Plant, indicating that a body had floated into the area of the plant. We determined that it was in fact him," the foreman said.
The state medical examiner's office took the consistency to Boston for positive identification and to limit the case of death, according to Romero.
But police are certain it was Silvera, after conferring with family members about several tattoos they base on the torso and the black tank top and underwear he was attired in, the foreman said.
Romero estimated the recovery operation took approximately 90 minutes from the sentence that police answered the claim until they removed the torso from the water.
Two firefighters on an inflatable raft paddled out to the body, placed a lasso round it and pulled it to a good location where it could be removed. The institute was shutdown while the recovery team worked.
Silvera's 19-year-old daughter told police that she received a telephone call from her mother at about 5 a.m. Wednesday, asking for a taunt from Jordan Street, behind the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence.
When she told him to acquire a cab that she would pay for, Silvera said he was going his dress on the riverside and intended to float across the river.
Police launched a hunt for Silvera early Wednesday afternoon after a promise from a Lawrence man who noticed somebody had left their dress in the domain of Jordan Street, on the north riverbank. Police found a shirt, a match of men's trousers, shoes, socks a multitude of Marlboro cigarettes, a couple of shades and a pocketbook containing Silvera's identification within five feet of the water.
Silvera's family said that he was a strong swimmer.
But his daughter recalled Silvera sounded low and drunk when he called her early Wednesday.
"The Merrimack River is not actually a big space to float even if you are a strong swimmer," Romero said in an interview yesterday.
"It's a dangerous river. It's a mysterious river - not one of those places where you can wade out into the water. Just a few steps from the land and you're in over your head. The folk said he was troubled, and his term may have been worsened with the alcohol. And he was facing some very strong currents," the foreman said.
"During my 12 years as chief here, we've lost at least a dozen people in the river. It's simply not a good home to be swimming," the foreman said.
Romero said he had a telephone conversation with a house member yesterday and uttered his condolences for the latest river tragedy.
"The house is grateful that we've recovered the body, but apparently very saddened by what's happened," the foreman said.