Morris authorities say two Passaic County men were Splitrock Reservoir drowning victims

Kyle Morel, Morristown Daily Record
·2 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

KINNELON — Morris County officials have released the names of two men who died after falling into Splitrock Reservoir while ice fishing over the weekend.

Stanislaw Grzesik, 64, of Clifton, and Tadeusz Florczuk, 76, of Passaic, were killed when they fell through the ice on the 650-acre reservoir, said Meghan Knab, public information officer for the Morris County Prosecutor's Office. Divers recovered Florczuk's body on Saturday, but Grzesik's was not recovered until Sunday afternoon.

Police in nearby Butler received a call at 1:59 p.m. Saturday from family members of the two men reporting them missing, according to a joint press release from the county prosecutor and Kinnelon Police Chief Joseph Napoletano. The families said the men traveled to the reservoir Friday but were not heard from by the next morning. The reservoir is on the border between Kinnelon and Rockaway Township.

Splitrock Reservoir, on the border of Kinnelon and Rockaway Township, looking north.
Splitrock Reservoir, on the border of Kinnelon and Rockaway Township, looking north.

Kinnelon police met the families at the reservoir, where they saw the victims' belongings on the shore and two holes in the ice about 100 yards from the shoreline, authorities said.

Dive teams recovered Florczuk's body Saturday before suspending the search that night due to poor weather and darkness. Emergency responders found Grzesik when they resumed recovery efforts the next day.

Autopsies were scheduled to be performed on the two victims Monday, but details were not immediately available from the Prosecutor's Office.

More: We asked experts how you can keep your family safe after string of North Jersey drownings

Other agencies that assisted in the investigation included the Morris County Sheriff's Office; fire departments from Kinnelon, Bloomingdale, Montville and Boonton; the Parsippany Rescue and Recovery Unit; and the Tri-Boro First Aid Squad serving Butler, Bloomingdale and Kinnelon.

Splitrock is a popular recreation area for boating, kayaking and fishing. It’s unclear why the two Passaic men were willing to brave the ice after a number of mild days last week.In 2018, Michael Vecchiarella, 55, of Totowa was found dead in the reservoir after he disappeared on a Memorial Day weekend kayaking trip.  The latest incident capped a series of drowning deaths in North Jersey in 2022, a toll that included the loss of two young men in a Mine Hill pond, a teenager's drowning in New Milford and a drowning in a reservoir in Woodland Park.

Kyle Morel is a local reporter covering Morris and Sussex counties.

Email: kmorel@njherald.com; Twitter: @KMorelNJH

This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Splitrock Reservoir drowning victims identified by Morris authorities