Man Found Dead In Sound Had Just Started County Job

Photo/U.S. Coast Guard Sector Long Island
This red, 14-foot kayak was unmanned when it was found in the Long Island Sound Monday afternoon. Authorities said it belonged to Gregory Blanco, who was found dead in the Sound later that day.

By Janee Law
jlaw@longislandergroup.com

The 41-year-old Commack man found dead in the Long Island Sound Monday afternoon had just started a new job with Suffolk County earlier this month.

Gregory Blanco, who Suffolk police said launched with his kayak from a Northport marina, and whose body found a few miles north of Belle Terre, began working as a personnel analyst trainee with the Suffolk County Civil Service Department on June 5, according to Alan Schneider, the personnel director of the department.

“Greg made an outstanding first impression on all of us and we offered him the position and he accepted,” Schneider said. “From the day he came in here until last Friday, he was a pleasure to have here. Everybody liked him.”

Schneider said he last spoke with Blanco on Wednesday, June 14. They talked about his future with the department.

“He told me that he’s just so happy to have this job; it was really the kind of job he was looking forward to obtaining and he just wanted to learn as much as he could, and as quickly as he could,” Schneider added. “We were very happy to have him and to have this happen to someone at a young age like this is just heartbreaking.”

The entire department, which is made up of 85 people, is grieving, Schneider added.

Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad detectives are currently investigating Blanco’s death, but a police spokesperson said in an email Tuesday that “they don’t believe he was murdered.”

Police added that they aren’t sure when Blanco launched his kayak, but located his vehicle at the Soundview Boat Ramp Marina in Northport on Monday.

Earlier that day around 8:30 a.m., a call from “good Samaritan” reported to the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound watch standers an unmanned red, 14-foot, one-person kayak found north of Stratford Shoal Middle Ground, Coast Guard officials said. The kayak was determined to be Blanco’s.

When boat crews from the Coast Guard Station New Haven and Eatons Neck recovered the kayak they found personal items aboard, officials said.

A person aboard the Park City, a Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Steamboat Company ferry, spotted Blanco’s body floating in the water at around 2 p.m., police said. The ferry was 3 miles north of Belle Terre at the time.

The Stratford Fire Department responded and recovered the body at around 4 p.m., according to U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Sabrina Clark.

Blanco was pronounced dead by a physician assistant from the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner, which is performing an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

Earlier this month, kayaker Selvin Vasquez-Enamorado, 24, of Huntington Station, was reported missing after launching from Crab Meadow Beach in Northport on June 11. Authorities suspended searches for him later that week.