Police continued their search on Saturday for Greenport resident Mike O’Brien — but despite valiant efforts, family and friends were left still waiting and praying for a miracle as he remained missing without a trace.
“We searched the shoreline from Southold to Orient on both the bay and Sound sides in police boats without locating anything of value in this investigation,” Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley said Saturday night. “We also had officers on ATVs search the entire Orient Point area again, including all park areas, with no luck. We expended these resources today because the weather permitted us to, as the forecast showed conditions deteriorating later in the day, through tomorrow. We have no searched planned for tomorrow.”
O’Brien has been missing since Sunday; on Tuesday, police confirmed that they had commenced a search after he was reported missing by his wife Mary.
“He abruptly left the house without any personal belongings in his vehicle and has not contacted his family since then,” Flatley said. “Our officers completed an initial investigation, but were not able to locate him. A missing persons report was filed and his information transmitted to all police sites.”
O’Brien, 55, a Greenport native, is described as being a white man, 6′ tall, with brown hair and a beard, weighing 250 lbs.
On Thursday, police located the vehicle belonging to O’Brien at the Cross Sound Ferry parking lot in Orient Point. Next, on Friday, Flatley said after reviewing videotape from surveillance cameras, “We saw a man arrive in the truck belonging to Mr. O’Brien exit his truck and walk east from the ferry terminal toward the beach.”
Meanwhile, O’Brien’s wife Mary and her family continue to search for answers as they continue their vigil. “We’re all still hoping and praying,” she said Friday. “We all love him so much. We’re all just devastated.”
Mary said she was allowed to bring her husband’s truck home Friday, something that gave her comfort.
Reflecting on the days leading up to his disappearance, Mary said they shared a warm family Christmas. “It’s totally out of his character to have done something like this,” she said. “There had been no talk of him going anywhere. We had a wonderful Christmas.” Although money was scarce, Mary said she and her husband were able to buy gifts for the children and a new iPhone for her mother; her husband, she said, spent “45 minutes on Christmas Eve, showing her how to use it.”
Her voice laced with tears, Mary shared memories of the man she’s loved since she was five years old. “I’ve been with this man for 29 years,” she said. “I knew I was going to marry him when I was a child.”
As a little girl, Mary said she would watch O’Brien walk past her house; she’d run to the dining room window to watch him do wheelies on his motorcycle. “He’s been in my life since I was a child, but back then, he had no idea of how I felt. I’ve known him my whole life. Mike and I have been through hell and back together, literally, and we’ve always found our way back to each other.”
In recent days, Mary said her husband was “depressed,” and worried about finances and a lack of work. “But we’ve been through this before, no money, no work. It’s not anything new for us,” she said.
Over the past year, however, Mary said her husband suffered greatly after losing his sister — and most recently, his beloved dog, Jake, a lab/hound mix who went everywhere with him in the back of his truck. “That dog was his life,” she said. “If Jake was here, I’d take him out to that beach and he’d find my husband.”
The bond between her husband and his dog was fierce, she said. “My husband could get off the Shelter Island ferry and come down Wiggins Street. He’d be a block away and Jake would hear him and be out the door, waiting for him. He loved that dog, and the dog felt the same way.”
Her husband, Mary said, was also very close to his granddaughter Abby, 2, who lives with the couple and their daughter. “Her favorite thing is to get up and sit on Mike,who she calls ‘Be Ba,’” she said.
Her husband, Mary said, is a gifted wood craftsman; when their dog was sick with cancer, he’d craft ramps to help make Jake’s life less painful.
In past days, officers conducted an extensive search of the Orient Point area, deploying Suffolk County Police aviation and marine units, as well as all-terrain vehicles, with negative results, police said.
The detective division will continue the investigation along with further physical searches, police said.
“He was depressed,” his wife Mary said, adding that her husband, a carpenter, “drove off in his Chevy pickup truck,” leaving his cell phone behind. “He left everything home.” While he does have a coat and his wallet, Mary said her husband has no cash and no credit cards.
His vehicle is described as “a gold/beige Chevy extended cab pickup with license plate number 8836JS,” his wife said.
“I can’t imagine where he would go,” she said, adding the couple have children and grandchildren, with a new grandchild on the way. “He’s a good man with a good heart and he loves his family more than anything,” she said.
Anyone with information is asked to call Southold Town police at 631-765-2600.
