Body found in NJ river ID’d as missing reporter

Authorities in northern New Jersey say a body found this week in a river is that of a former Wall Street Journal reporter who had been missing for more than a year.

Morris County Prosecutor Fredric Knapp announced Thursday that the body was positively identified as that of David Bird, who was 55 when he disappeared in January 2014 while taking a walk near his home in Long Hill Township.

Knapp says two men canoeing Wednesday in the Passaic River came across a red jacket. Police later found human remains.

Bird had worked for the Journal’s publisher, Dow Jones & Co., for more than 20 years.