Autopsy Confirms Body is Missing Officer

WILDWOOD — The body of a man found six miles off the coast of this city Sun., Sept. 2 has been identified as missing Middle Township Patrolman Jason Sill.
According to state police, who led the multi-agency search for the missing officer, positive identification was done by matching a tattoo on the body with a tattoo reported to be on Sill.
“The condition of the body was consistent with a deceased person being exposed to water for a prolonged period of time,” said state police. The cause and manner of death remains undetermined, pending further examination.
A state police spokesman told the Herald in an interview, the body was found and reported by a passing yacht. “At approximately 2:50 p.m. (Sept. 2), a boat captain, about six nautical miles off the coast of Wildwood found a body.”
The captain of the vessel contacted Coast Guard rescue personnel who responded to the scene. The then unidentified body was pronounced deceased at 5:32 p.m. by a forensic nurse from the Medical Examiner’s Office and was taken to Shore Medical Center in Som-ers Point for an autopsy.
Sill, 39, of Court House was reported missing after his boat was found uninhabited one mile off shore. He was last seen alone at about 9:30 a.m. Mon., Aug. 27 leaving Pier 47 Marina on Route 47 in Rio Grande in his 23-foot Nautic Star boat named the Rock ‘n’ Reel. He told several people at the marina he was going fishing in the back bay.
A Good Samaritan mariner reported finding the boat approximately 1 mile off the coast. A boat crew from Coast Guard Station Cape May arrived on scene with Sill’s boat and discovered the keys in the ignition with the engine in the down position with the throttle for-ward. Fishing poles were also discovered on the boat.
Watch standers at Coast Guard Station Delaware Bay, which is responsible for the entire maritime area around Cape May County, took the initial report and launched what became a widespread search that included numerous Coast Guard boats and helicopters, State Po-lice Marine Bureau watercraft and divers from both State Police and Middle Township Po-lice Department. Fire companies and beach patrols with Jet-ski capability joined the search onshore and offshore.
On Tue., Aug. 28 at approximately 10 p.m., Coast Guard suspended its search for Sill. State and local police, however, continue their search for the missing officer. State police confirmed they had discontinued the use of side scan sonar on Wed., Aug. 29 at 3 p.m., but local agencies continued to conduct a surface search.