Police look for missing Setauket man

Suffolk and state authorities sent out divers, off-road vehicles and a helicopter Tuesday in a search for a missing East Setauket doctor who parked his car to go fly-fishing at a Smithtown nature preserve on Labor Day but never returned to his vehicle, state park police said.

State park police and Suffolk County police searched late Monday, then resumed early Tuesday with divers, and with Fourth Precinct officers canvassing neighborhoods near the park, police said. The search continued into the evening and was scheduled to resume again Wednesday morning, police said.

The missing man, Dr. Jerome Nadler, 76, is described as 5 feet, 10 inches tall, about 180 pounds, wearing a blue shirt, khaki vest and waders.

He was last known to be at the 543-acre Caleb Smith State Park Preserve in Smithtown, police said. The park allows fly-fishing on its ponds and creeks, which feed the Nissequogue River.

Nadler had a heart condition so park employees allowed him to drive along a paved road instead of walking to a fly fishing area in the park south of Jericho Turnpike, between Old Willets Path and the Smithtown bull statue, state park police Capt. Bruce Marx said.

The search area includes a range of state parkland south of Jericho Turnpike and the adjacent Blydenburgh County Park, Marx said.

State medical profession records show Nadler was registered through July 2013, and first got his license on Sept. 20, 1966. He graduated in 1964 from medical school at the University of Geneva.

Anyone who may have seen the missing man is asked to call park police at 631-321-3700.