After an inconclusive report from the state’s chief medical examiner, Police Chief Cisco Ortiz (picture at left) said Monday that the cops are pursuing new leads in the drowning last week of a man in Edgewood Park.
They’re looking for a man who may have been quarelling with the victim, as well as for a woman the victim had spent time with.
The victim, 43-year-old Philip Vinci, was found by a passer-by in Edgewood Park on Sunday, Oct. 16. Vinci’s dead body was half-submerged in the West River.
Vinci lived by himself in a rooming house on Forest Road. He recently took a job at Ferraro’s Market on Grand Avenue. Police weren’t sure whether his death resulted from foul play or whether it was an accident. There were no obvious signs of a struggle. (Click here to read William Kaempffer’s story in the Register.)
After an autopsy, the medical examiner’s office wasn’t sure either. Yes, Vinci drowned. But did someone drown him or otherwise attack him beforehand? The medical examiner asked the police department to look into any feuds Vinci may have had with people prior to his death.
Vinci may have been the white man seen quarelling with a Latino man in the park days before his death. That’s a lead the police are pursuing.
The physical description of that man may also fit the description of a man who tried unsuccessfully to get a job at Ferraro’s shortly before the death. “We’re not sure of that at all,” said Sgt. Andrew Muro. Police have not been able to track down the man. Muro emphasized that the police have no basis at all at this point for knowing what any quarrel in the park may have been over.
On one day shortly before his death, Vinci was seen with a female. “She was one of the last people he was with. We are trying to locate her. We do not have a firm name for her,” Muro said.
Anyone with information on the case is urged to call Muro at 946‑6304.
Chief Ortiz called it unusual to receive such an inconclusive report from the medical examiner. “At the same time I respect their opinion. They’ve given us a lot of work to do.”