February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Stephen McKinley
Police in Clarkstown, N.Y., have distributed missing person posters around New York City for a 19-year-old Irish-American man from West Nyack.
Michael McDermott was reported missing on Thanksgiving Day when his black 2-door 1995 Toyota Celica was found by the curbside of a parking lot in Fort Lee, N.J., in the early hours.
McDermott, who is often known as Mike, was last seen wearing a black jacket, blue jeans and a gray shirt. He is 5-feet-8 and 185 pounds, has light brown hair and hazel eyes.
For the police department in Clarkson, Det. Frank Romano said that police had traced McDermott’s movements into the Bronx from Westchester on Wednesday, Nov. 21 through his E-Z pass. E-Z pass records show that McDermott crossed the Tappan Zee Bridge at 2:57 p.m. and drove through the New York State Thruway toll plaza in Yonkers at 3:08, Romano said. He was last seen leaving his job in West Nyack, N.Y., during his lunch break at 2 p.m. Wednesday. It was his first day on the job.
“From the information we have about this young man, he really would have no reason to be in Manhattan or Fort Lee at the time he was there,” Romano said. He added that the police had had no positive leads on McDermott’s whereabouts so far.
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There were several sightings of his car, because, Romano said, McDermott had easily remembered vanity license plates on his car: “GOKNIX”.
Romano added that there had been several isolated reports of McDermott being spotted since then, including a sighting on Jan. 9 of a man who resembled McDermott panhandling in the vicinity of 59th Street and Roosevelt Avenue in Queens.
Anyone with any information on Michael McDermott can contact the Clarkson Police Department at (845) 639-5800 or toll-free at (877) 639-6233.