Two Bodies Found in Local Waters
By Katie McFadden
Last week, two dead bodies washed up on the peninsula. On the morning of Wednesday, March 27, a heavily decomposed body washed up near Reid Avenue on the oceanside of Breezy Point. Two days later, another body was found in Jamaica Bay, near the rocks on Beach 92nd Street.
A young female discovered the first body while running along the beach in Breezy Point. Just before 9 a.m., police responded to a 911 call for a water rescue on the oceanside near Reid Ave. Upon arriving at the scene, officers of the 100th Precinct found male remains laying on the shore. EMS responded and pronounced the male deceased. NYPD said a medical examiner will determine the cause of death and the incident remains under investigation.
However, by Friday morning, March 29, the identity of that body had been revealed, and it meant the end of a long search for a devasted family. The body was that of 26-year-old Colin Marma, a young man from upstate Garrison, NY, who had been missing since February 2.
According to Marma’s mother, Jeanne-Marie Fleming, who spoke with LoHud.com, Marma was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, which he had been living with for nearly four years. The morning of his disappearance, his stepfather had noticed that Marma seemed agitated. Marma later disappeared from work, telling co-workers he was going for a coffee break. Marma’s 2004 Mercedes Benz was later found at 143rd Street and Broadway in Hamilton Heights, Manhattan that evening, according to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office. His phone was found on airplane mode in the glove compartment. His last known location was Bless Bar & Kitchen where he had purchased a drink.
Fleming and other family and friends spent several weeks searching for Marma, printing out flyers to hand around Manhattan and even starting a Facebook group to aide in the search. On Thursday, March 28, Fleming learned that the body found on the beach in Breezy Point was her son. “It’s really sad for all of us,” she told LoHud.com. “It’s been very hard on the family to process all of this.”
While the incident remains under investigation, it appears no foul play is involved in his death.
Just hours after Marma’s identity was released to the public on Friday, March 29, another dead body was found on the bayside near the rocks behind 377 Beach 92nd Street. Police responded to a 911 call at 2:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon. The Harbor Unit and ESU removed the body from the water. As we go to press, the NYPD did not have any other details about this incident. According to PIX 11, the person did not have any signs of trauma. The incident is under investigation.
The discovery of these two bodies in the waters off the peninsula comes just four months after the torso and legs of Irish filmmaker Ross McDonnell were discovered near Breezy Point, not far from where it is believed he entered the water for a swim in Fort Tilden, two weeks earlier on the night of November 4, 2023.
While it is unusual for two bodies to be discovered in the waters off of Rockaway in the same week in the off-season, experts say it is not unusual for bodies submerged in water to start floating to the surface as the water starts to warm up in spring. As water reaches above 40 degrees, bacteria in intestinal tracts start to create gases that cause bodies to float. Just before Marma’s body was discovered on March 27, another body was found in the waters off of Governor’s Island near Manhattan on the afternoon of March 26.
