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Body Found In Lake Ontario Identified As Son Of ESPN Writer

FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. -- A body pulled from Lake Ontario on Friday has been identified as Max Maisel, a 21-year-old student from Fairfield who went missing in February from his campus at the Rochester Institute of Technology, according to Syracuse.com.

Max Maisel, 21, third-year professional photographic illustration student at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Max Maisel, 21, third-year professional photographic illustration student at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Photo Credit: File

Maisel, a third-year professional photographic illustration student at RIT, was last seen Feb. 22 near the Charlotte Pier at Lake Ontario. Police and rescuers searched the area and the icy waters for his body for weeks before calling off the search last month. 

The cause of death was still being investigated, Syracuse.com said.

A fisherman came across the body at 7:30 p.m. Friday about 200 yards from the Coast Guard Station, the report said.

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

In a statement released through the Rochester Police Department, Maisel's family thanked the Coast Guard and the Rochester Police Department. 

"We knew this day would come, and we are relieved that it has. But it is merely the postscript to our sad story," the statement said. "We have mourned Max from the night that the Rochester Police called to tell us he was missing. There was no other plausible solution to the puzzle he left behind.

"Now we must get on with living with this hole in our lives. Death cannot take away the love we continue to have for our son and the love that our daughters have for their brother. Death will not rob us of that."

The statement also went to say, "We have our memories of a sweet boy who grew into a sensitive, caring young man. We have his photography, a record of the talent he had just begun to develop. ... Whatever gratitude we express here is wholly inadequate. And we have how desperately we miss him. That will not go away."

The family held a memorial service for Max Maisel, a graduate of Fairfield Warde High School, on March 27 at Congregation Bnai Israel in Bridgeport. 

Read the full story here at Syracuse.com.

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