Man Sleeping In Forge Pond Park Flees Brick Police, Sets Off Hours-Long Search

BRICK, NJ — A man who had been listed in a national database as a missing and endangered person was found Monday afternoon following a lengthy search of Forge Pond after he fled from police early in the morning, Brick Township police said.

Christopher Therien, whose age and hometown were not provided, had been found sleeping in Forge Pond Park off Route 70 about 3 a.m. Monday, police said.

As police told him of the rules and hours of operation of the park — it closes overnight — Therien took off, jumped into the water, and swam across Forge Pond. He took a kayak from a resident's backyard and paddled west into the woods behind the Ocean County Golf Course at Forge Pond, police said.

Investigators learned Therien had been previously entered into the National Database as a missing and endangered person, police said.

As authorities continued to search the 36-acre lake — which stretches west about a mile from Route 70 to the golf course and is a collection point for the Metedeconk River before it crosses under Route 70 and out to Barnegat Bay — they initially put out an alert about the search, identifying him. An hour later, about 4 p.m., they announced Therien had been found.

Brick police have not released details about where Therien was located or why he was hiding out at the park.

Brick Township police, the township's Office of Emergency Management and Brick Township EMS responded and were assisted in the search by the Breton Woods & Pioneer Hose Dive Rescue Team, the Ocean County Sheriff's Department and the New Jersey State Police.