Letters

I’m responding to the fake news put out on the front page of last week’s East Hampton Press on finding Peter Beard’s body [“Body Of Peter Beard Found In Montauk,” 27east.com, April 19].

I, Dave Schleifer, found Peter’s body. The police had nothing to do with finding his remains. I spent two days searching for him last week after we figured out he was not lost in the sea. You got it wrong.

I was looking for Peter’s remains, and I found one of his shoes. Called the police. Two detectives were led into the woods by me, we marked the place the shoe was found, they left the woods to rally a new search team for the body. I called them back 20 minutes later when I found Peter Beard’s body.

My goal was to find him. I did. I have been hunting the woods in front of Peter’s property for 30 years. I know it better than anyone here.

RIP, Peter Beard.

Dave Schleifer

Montauk

The report from Captain Chris Anderson was that an unnamed hunter “was checking out an area he frequents during the deer hunting season” and found an article of clothing believed to belong to Mr. Beard, and that police discovered Mr. Beard’s body a short distance away about an hour later — Ed.