The search continued Monday for a 24-year-old Madison man who was reported missing Saturday and has been the subject of an intensive two-day search in the Great Swamp area.
“Our investigation is ongoing,” said Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Zelante. The investigation is being headed by the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office.
Stephen Marano was last seen around 1:30 a.m. Saturday when he left the Green Village Fire Department’s headquarters, where he is a volunteer firefighter, on Green Village Road in the Green Village section of Chatham Township.
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Marilyn Zara, of Madison, said Sunday that her nephew, Stephen Marano of South Street in Madison, drove from home around midnight Saturday morning to go to the firehouse, and was last seen when he left the department’s headquarters at about 1:30 a.m.
After Marano, the son of Mary Marano of South Street and one of four brothers, failed to return home, his mother called in a missing person report, Zara said. Marano’s father, Anthony Marano, passed away about six years ago.
Marano was remembered during Monday’s brief Veterans Day observances, held at the memorial stone across the street from the Green Village firehouse, which was on Sunday turned into a command post for search operations.
“Keep Stephen Marano and his family in your prayers,” said The Rev. Clarissa South Holland, pastor of the Green Village United Methodist Church.
Vehicle On Dirt Road
Zara disclosed that investigators subsequently found Marano’s vehicle on Britten Road, a dirt road off Green Village Road, with two of its wheels on the roadway and two in the brush.
The discovery was part of a search of the Great Swamp area that included dozens of law-enforcement officers, a K-9 dog-tracking unit and even helicopters.
Zara said that as a firefighter who has taken part in search-and-rescue operations in the Great Swamp, the family considered it unlikely that Marano would have headed on foot into the swamp “at 2 o’clock in the morning” and in cold weather. “He knew the danger,” she said.
Marano, who is employed as a waiter at the Madison Hotel in Morris Township, remained missing Sunday, and Zara said the continued search of the Great Swamp had to be called off at around 4:30 p.m. Sunday when darkness descended.
Zara indicated the family was mystified by Marano’s disappearance. “He had no enemies,” she observed.
Unless good news was received soon, Zara noted Sunday evening, it would be a second very difficult night for the family.
Two-Day Search
Police said Sunday afternoon they were continuing their efforts to find the 24-year-old Madison man. Morris County acting Prosecutor Frederick M. Knapp said Sunday only that Marano’s vehicle had been located near the Great Swamp in Chatham Township.
By late Sunday afternoon, with Marano still not found, dozens of members of various law enforcement and rescue agencies remained collected at the search’s command post, set up at the very place where Marano was last seen – the Green Village Fire Department in Chatham Township.
The investigation is being conducted by officers of the Chatham Township and Madison police departments, the New Jersey State Police, K-9 units from New Jersey Search and Rescue, the Morris County Park Police and the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office.
Zara said investigators from the county Prosecutor’s Office had been on the scene “from the start.”
Description
Marano is described as white, about 5-feet 9-inches tall, weighing 150 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. He might have a close-cut hair cut or a shaved head.
He was last reported to be wearing dark pants and a dark sweatshirt, according to Knapp.
Knapp issued a public alert on the missing man at about 1:30 p.m. Sunday, which was reinforced by Madison police with an alert at about 3:30 p.m.
Both Knapp and police asked anyone with information about Marano’s whereabouts to call the Morris County Communications Center at 973-285-2900.
