Mystery continues in disappearance of Greenwood Lake boater

Mombasha Fire Company dive team joins search Greenwood Lake - A luxury cabin cruiser, owned by Greenwood Lake Village resident Steven Zaicek, was found with its engine running, unattended, across the New York-New Jersey border Saturday night near Storms Island with Zaicek missing. The mystery began at 4:30 in the evening when Zaicek left the Willow Point Marina approximately four miles northwest across the lake from Storms Island, supposedly on a test cruise prior to storing the boat in winter layup. Approximately an hour later, after departing the marina, Zaicek, on a southerly course, placed a cell phone call stating he would be home in 15 minutes. He was reported to not be wearing a life jacket. When he didn’t return by about 6 p.m. friends in another boat from the marina began searching and by 9:30 p.m. the Greenwood Lake Police were called. A dive team from the Monroe Mombasha Fire Company searched both the immediate shore line and coast from a rubber boat around Storms Island Saturday night and Sunday. Assistant Fire Chief and former dive captain Steven Maneri said the team used two boats with nine divers on board. The rescue team scoured both the shoreline and water from the boat with no results. Despite a three-day search by numerous law enforcement agencies and dive unit, including the use of two helicopters from New York and New Jersey and the New Jersey State Police applying side radar, Zaicek’s disappearance still remains a mystery. Greenwood Lake Police spokesperson Barbara O’Donnell said the police were categorizing Zaicek’s disappearance as a “missing persons” case. As of Wednesday a nine-member dive team from the Greenwood Lake Police Department was probing the depths of the lake for any clues to his disappearance. They were expected to continue that work on Thursday. Detective Sgt. John Hansen said Zaicek was an avid boater and owned the cabin cruiser for quite a while. He said he may have been experiencing mechanical problems that could have led to his falling overboard. Greenwood Lake has a mean depth of 17 feet and a maximum depth of 57 feet. The lake is 9.6 miles long and 1.2 miles wide. The EPA has published warnings of massive weed growth in parts of the lake and floating stumps that form a hazard to navigation. The weather conditions Saturday night when Zaicek disappeared were rainy with 0.13 inches of precipitation and a breeze blowing from the northwest. Hansen said the lake has a slight flow to the south toward the dam in New Jersey, making conditions difficult for locating anything submerged. Zaicek is a former securities dealer with a history of financial problems. He had a bankruptcy filing in the 1990’s and was suspended from securities trading for nine months for failing to disclose certain information. He was fined $7,500 in 2003 by the NASD, a self-regulatory organization of the securities industry responsible for the operation and regulation of the Nasdaq stock market and over-the-counter markets.