Cops seek body board in missing man case

East Hampton Police said Monday they are looking for a missing body board in connection with last month's disappearance of a Dix Hills man.

A department news release on the search for hospital executive George Richardson, 50, said police are looking for a body board that is "unaccounted for."

The release included a photograph of a body board -- red with a star pattern -- similar to the one that is missing.

The release offers new information and suggests that Richardson -- who went out for an early morning walk on Aug. 28 and never returned, according to what his family told police -- could have used the body board in the ocean waters near the Hartman's Briney Breezes Motel, at 693 Old Montauk Hwy.

East Hampton Town police are investigating.

Neither Det. Sgt. Robert Gurney, the lead investigator, nor the department's chief, Edward Ecker, could be reached for comment.

Richardson, director of fundraising at Huntington Hospital, was vacationing with his family at the Montauk motel when he went missing.

He was last seen in the motel at about 1 a.m., several hours before his family reported him missing, according to police.

Police said Richardson had been taking early-morning walks on the beach, and his family thinks he went out about 6 a.m. the day he disappeared and never returned, though his family had expected him to come back.

Richardson held top fundraising and alumni-relations positions at Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre, Hofstra University and St. John's University School of Law before joining Huntington Hospital.

In July, he was appointed to the board of the Huntington Chamber of Commerce.