Shocking.

BTW, Has Smudge gone away?

SpacePuppy wrote:

Yep.  He said he had to go...

Em must have pissed him off?

Emmeran wrote:

Nah that dude Smudge was awesome, I never went after him.  I only fuck with people like you, whom I know can take it and hold their own.

I was just fucking with you, it's been awhile.

Bigcat wrote:

SpacePuppy wrote:

Yep.  He said he had to go...

Em must have pissed him off?

You can't clock that many hours on a dinky venue like this without wondering, why am I doing this?

I hope Smudge found someone to pay him for his obvious image curating talents.

choad wrote:

Bigcat wrote:

SpacePuppy wrote:

Yep.  He said he had to go...

Em must have pissed him off?

You can't clock that many hours on a dinky venue like this without wondering, why am I doing this?

I hope Smudge found someone to pay him for his obvious image curating talents.

Hah. I posted at the same instant as you.

So am I the only one that you pay for content here? I feel a bit bad about that but I do have some expensive habits to keep up.

,,,last I saw was a post where he's say'n he was going to gone for a bit.....??

Mugwump wrote:

,,,last I saw was a post where he's say'n he was going to gone for a bit.....??

I wonder if one of the severed feet that Johnny Rotten has been tossing in the Pacific belonged to him?

Figures. You save the damn things till you can toss them in the most unlikely of locations and they still wash up back home. Like I need the hassle.

I'm still blaming "IcangetyouaToe", her handle seemed a little too coincidental...

Well I have known such feets as these.

I present another episode of strange tales from the sea for your winter's perusal.

In very murky circumstances an acquaintance went missing, feel free to read between the lines for an unsatisfied wife, an affair with a too well connected local jerk, property that had risen in value far outsripping what the regular income could provide, an estate stuck in limbo till a death certificate can issued, Lo and behold, what wonders the sea does return and oh how painfully slowly the powers that be off island creep along to a happy ending for all. Well some were left in the wake.




SEARCHING IN VAIN: A 21-hour search for Jon Hemingway, who was piloting this boat from Hyannis to Nantucket last Wednesday night, . - turned up nothing. Hemingway's wife and young daughters were below deck sleeping and woke after midnight to find the boat aground on * - Steps Beach. Authorities believe he fell overboard more than halfway through the trip, just nine miles north of the island.

Wife tells story of pilotless boat running aground as she, kids slept below
CoastGuard says it's likely Jon Hemingway fell overboard nine miles away from shore

By Jason Graziadei and Eliot Baker I&M StafFWriters

Island landscaper Jon Hemingway disappeared at sea last Wednesday night in a bizarre boating accident in Nantucket Sound, leaving his wife and two daughters sleeping in the cabin of their 22-foot powerboat which began spiraling erratically nine miles north of Nantucket before grounding near Steps Beach Thursday

Kate and Jon Hemingway

morning.

A massive, 21-hour search for Hemingway on land and sea by the Coast Guard and local police was called off by noon last Friday. The Coast Guard will continue to investigate the "Katie B.'s" position when the course became erratic, but Brant Point Coast Guard Station senior chief T.J. Malvesti said it will no longer search for a body.

Officials say the Hemingways left. Hyannis for Nantucket at 9 p.m. Wednesday, and the wife and daughters went to sleep in the berth of their Maritime Patriot at 9:15 p.m. After completing a review of the boat's GPS navigation data, authorities now believe Hemingway went overboard about nine miles off Nantucket at 11:15 p.m. when the course became erratic, drifting south in clockwise circles, before the boat grounded on Steps Beach around 1 a.m.

In an interview at her home last weekend, Katie Hemingway, 36, was still coming to grips with the loss of her husband and the father of their two young girls. But she realized how lucky she and her children were to have beached safely on Nantucket when the boat could have easily hit the

jetties or drifted out into the open ocean. "It's a miracle that we made it back to the island on an unmanned boat for nine miles," she said. "I feel completely blessed. I believe Jon's spirit was guiding the boat into safe harbor because when I heard that news, I was just shocked." Katie Hemingway said she awoke several times early that morning knowing the boat was beached, but believing her husband - an experienced boater - was working on removing the vessel from a shoal or had gone into town to get help, she went back to sleep with her children before finally calling for help around 7 a.m.

A local fisherman and friend of Jon Hemingway answered the call and picked up the family from the beach Thursday morning. He told Katie Hemingway and police officers that he had spoken to Jon on the phone that morning - a story that he later recanted, but which compromised the initial response and investigation. Both police and Katie Hemingway declined to release the identity of the man, but his statement delayed Coast Guard notification of Hemingway's disappearance until 2 p.m. on Thursday, and later generated wild speculation among island residents about what may have happened that night.

"It was erroneous information, but it wasn't done intentionally to harm the investigation," Detective Lieutenant Jerry Adams said of the man's initial statement. "I think he was just confused. The guy was upset and confused."

authorities say no apparent wrongdoing

Officials are satisfied there was no wrongdoing or foul play in Hemingway's disappearance.

"We investigated this as a missing person case, and all the indicators are that this was an accident and there's no suspicious aspect to it because of what our investigation revealed," Adams said. "Everything fits. Her story, everything we know and could verify, the investigation comes together. All the questions were answered to our satisfaction that this was a sea-borne accident. Out of respect to the family, I can't disclose certain details of the case to the public, but we're satisfied that it was an accident."

Malvesti said the typical survival time for a person in such conditions would not exceed five to seven hours. If Hemingway indeed went overboard at 11 p.m. Wednesday night, he'd have been in the water for 15 hours wearing heavy boots, work clothes and no life jacket when the Coast Guard began its


search at 2 p.m. Thursday.

"We just want to make sure we know where the people went off the boat-definitely and that's about it at this point," Malvesti said of the status of the investigation. "Any speculation as to the why, or the how, we're going to leave that to other authorities."

The man who picked up Katie Hemingway and her children from the beach Thursday morning reached out to the Marine Department about the boat, and police first learned about the case at 11:54 a.m. when officers were contacted by harbormaster Dave Fronzuto. The man initially told police the same thing he told Katie Hemingway: that he had spoken to Jon Hemingway that morning. Officers then contacted Katie Hemingway as well as friends and family, and began a land-based search which included the use of the department's tracking canine Arno. When it became clear that the man may not have talked to Hemingway that morning, the Coast Guard was notified and began its water-based search around 2 p.m.

Police went as far as obtaining an emergency subpoena to obtain the phone records of the man who claimed to have spoken with Hemingway Thursday morning.

"We looked at any kind of data we could gather. We collected all types of communication data, navigation data, anything we could get to use to verify this story," said Adams. "There's no suspicious behavior or material out there to lead us to believe this is anything more than a maritime accident."

Friends, family address speculation

Despite the conclusions of the investigators, the strange circumstances of the case led many island residents to speculate that there was something nefarious about Hemingway's disappearance, conjecture which family friend Amy Manning dismissed, as simply hurtful rumors. "Nantucket people want to sensationalize a truly tragic moment in a family's life," Manning said. "One that will never bring peace to them, ever. And no one, not even Katie, will ever know what happened nine miles out. If you knew this family, you would not say the things being said. And if you knew this family, you don't even acknowledge them." Hemingway's wife and close friends described him as an avid, experienced boater, and said it wasn't strange that he wanted to pick his wife up in Hyannis in the small powerboat with their two young daughters along for the ride on a winter evening. "Undoubtedly, he spent more time on the water than anyone I knew who wasn't a fisherman," said Hemingway's friend Sam Slosek. "Jon was probably third only to the Steamship and Hyline in cruises to the Cape and back. There were always good reasons whether it be to hit the Home Depot for some flooring or a trip to the MCPA (Mashpee Center for Performing Arts). It was always about the trip for John, being on the boat, on the water, where he was most at home."

The Katie B. does not have autopilot function. Madaket Marine parts and facilities manager Shane Amos examined the GPS data with police and said it is consistent with how an unmanned boat with outboard hydraulic steering like the Hemingway's Maritime Patriot would be expected to behave under such circumstances. Older boats without hydraulic steering would behave differently and follow a less circular pattern as the steering constantly adjusted against waves.

"If someone goes overboard, because of the rotation of the . motor, it doesn't tend to go in one direction," Amos said, adding that the Katie B.'s GPS data corresponds to other cases he's seen of boats without an operator. "It tends to go in a circle just like an airplane does, like when people have heart attacks on the plane." Until Hemingway's body is found, he is considered missing. A so-called death in absentia is usually not declared until seven years after the person goes missing, but can sometimes be declared earlier in special cases as when there's a witness to the alleged deadly event, said attorney Paul Aiken, founding partner of Aiken & Aiken in Hyannis.

Katie Hemingway tells her tale . At the family's home on Field Avenue, Katie Hemingway was surrounded by friends and family on Saturday as she sat down to describe the final moments she spent with her husband, and the fateful trip back from Hyannis last Wednesday night. Trembling and fighting back tears at times, she said that her husband had wanted the evening to be a romantic cruise back to the island —a date of sorts. Katie was returning to Nantucket after an organic landscaping workshop in Sturbridge, Mass. Jon Hemingway couldn't find a baby-sitter that night for their two young daughters, Elizabeth, 3, and Madeline, who just turned one the previous week, and decided to bring them along for the ride, she said.

"A trip to Hyannis in our boat? Routine. He called me and said T couldn't find a baby-sitter and I've got the girls on the boat with me. They're cozy. We've got snacks and a movie, is that okay with you?'" Hemingway said. "Anything about the ocean and the sea, I trust him 110 percent If he says it's fine, I agree."

Katie Hemingway met her husband and their two daughters at the dock near the Steamship Authority, and brought dinner and a 12-pack of beer. Both she and Nantucket police confirmed days later that Jon Hemingway had consumed only half a beer on the return trip'to Nantucket that night.

The; young family set; out from Hyannis harbor around 9 p.m. under relatively fair conditions for March. Winds were recorded at roughly 16 mph, according to the data records of the Nantucket Sound weather buoy.

'"I ate my dinner, we hung out for awhile, it started to get a little choppy and I decided to go down below with the girls," Katie Hemingway said. "The girls got cozy around me, we cuddled. It was bumpy. I don't enjoy being on the water unless itVglass, but. I love being on the water with nry family. It's something we always do together. We ended up falling asleep."

The small cabin of the Hemingway's powerboat is roughly five feet bv four feet with two small portholes and a small bifold,door with a latch at the top. Hemingway said she lemembers waking several times during the journey and thinking "gosh, we're kind of going a little slow," but fell back asleep with her daughters.

Boat runs aground just after midnight

Hemingway awoke to a loud noise just after 1 a.m. The motor was still running and the engine alami was on. Hemingway was unaware that the boat had just beached along Nantucket's north shore, and that her husband was gone.

"I heard a bang, and the boat swerved very hard to the right, then I heard the sound of the boat going up on the sand," Hemingway said. "These are all familiar sounds to me- the boat going up on the sand. We beach the boat on shoals sometimes when we're out; in the summer. The pattern is usually that Jon takes care of it. He bounces off the boat, pushes us off, all that stuff.

"I knew we were on. land," she continued. "I ended up peeking out the window and I could see there were some house lights really close. I knew we were on Nantucket and somewhere populated. I was annoyed because I thought 'we're almost home and we beached the boat.' But the girls were sleeping on top of me and I thought I heard movement. I heard the familiar sound of the boat, rocking and it moving back and forth. I couldn't reach the door. The entire time I was in that cabin, I always believed Jon was with me. I never believed for a second that he had fallen off the boat. I stayed in the cabin with the girls and just trusted that we would get out soon."

Before she fell back asleep, Hemingway called her husband's cell phone four times, and heard it ringing above her on the dashboard of the boat. She said the fact that he did not answer did not immediately alarm her.

"He's never been a good cell phone answerer," she said. "I'm like 'Oh geez, he can't hear me.' He's out behind the boat pushing and. digging."

Hemingway awoke again just before 5 a.m. It was dark, the boat's motor was still running, the engine alarm was still sounding, and she began to think that something was amiss.

"I started to get really concerned because it was the same sounds I heard before and we hadn't moved, nothing had happened. I made the decision to start banging and screaming," she said. "That put my kids into sort of a frenzy. They got panicked as well. Elizabeth just kept asking for her daddy. It took me about 20 minutes to try to open the door. I was banging on it with one of Elizabeth's boots to see if Jon was behind the boat still digging or couldn't hear me because the alarm and the engine were still going."

When she emerged from the cabin, Hemingway said she realized the boat was on the beach, near one of the jetties. Her husband was still gone, and she couldn't see an}r footprints in the sand leading away from the boat, but she thought the waves may have erased them. Assuming that -Jon Hemingway had walked into town to get help, Katie turned off the engine, pulled the motor out of the water, and returned to the cabin to attend to her daughters.

"My focus was on my children who were trying to crawl out of the cabin and I was trying to keep them in because it was too cold and I didn't want them to be outside seeing that their dad wasn't there," she said. "I made the decision to get back in the boat with the girls. I had to calm them clown...We were singing songs and I was trying to calm them clown and probably about half an hour later, we ended up falling asleep again, and the next time I woke again it was daylight." Emerging from the cabin, Hemingway saw that the boat had run aground just east of Steps Beach, near The Galley restaurant. She called a family friend for help, but refused to reveal his identity. Within minutes, he arrived on the beach in his truck to pick them up. "I said 'has Jon called you yet? And he said Yeah, actually I just got off the phone with him,'" Hemingway recalled. "I said 'Really? Really? Where is he?' He said 'He didn't say. He just told me he had beached the boat and you guys were in it.'" Why the search was delayed That statement, by the unidentified friend, compromised the initial investigation by police, and gave Hemingway false hope that her husband had indeed reached land. From that moment, Hemingway spent most of last Thursday thinking that Jon was somewhere onisland arranging for the boat to be removed from the shore, or simply stewing over the fact that he had beached the vessel in the first place. She called friends and family, asking if they had seen Jon anywhere on the island, but no one had. Hemingway said she scoured the island for her husband, driving to Madaket and back, "searching high and low, all his haunts and favorite spots" to no avail.

Hemingway later called back the man who had picked her up on the beach to ask what number showed up on his phone when Jon had called him that morning. He said he didn't recognize it. She asked him to call the number back and see where he was, but the man told her all he got was an answering machine and that he had left several messages.

"Slowly over time, we realized this phone number story was false," she said. "We all wasted a lot of time because of this phone call...When I found out the story wasn't true, that he had made it up, or maybe he thought he heard from Jon and he didn't, but the story was a dead end.

"Maybe he wanted to make me feel better, maybe he didn't know what to say," she continued. "The whole time I wasn't certain what the story was with this phone call, but it was what I was hanging on to. That evening when I called him and said 'listen, you've got to tell me the truth...Did Jon call you or didn't he call you? Tell me now.' He just said 'You know Katie, I don't know.' He started crying and said 'Maybe he called. I can't remember. I'm sorry.' He was distraught."

By that time on Thursday night, the Coast Guard and local police had launched a massive search effort for Hemingway on land and sea. But by late Friday morning, after reviewing the GPS navigation data from Hemingway's boat and scouring Nantucket Sound for any sign of him, the Coast Guard called off the search, and informed Hemingway about what they believed happened to her husband.
---------------------------

Human washes ashore
By Jason Graziadei

I&M Senior Writer

The skeletal remains of a

human leg, with a sock and

boot still clinging to the foot, washed up on Coatue last Thursday afternoon.

The grim discovery was made by rangers working with the Trustees of Reservations, the conservation group which manages the remote wildlife area, on the northeastern side of Coatue in the Chord of the Bay, which faces Nantucket Sound. The rangers reported the find to Nantucket police, and detectives were dispatched to retrieve the remains.

Investigators with the Cape and Islands District Attorney's office and the state medical examiner are now working to identify the victim, but the results of DNA testing may not be available for four to five months, District Attorney Michael O'Keefe said.

'There are a number of things that will enable us to make an identification, including DNA, but it will be a lengthy process," O'Keefe said. "There are some other things about the remains that may help us identify them before then."

O'Keefe would not discuss what other factors could allow investigators to identify the remains.

Authorities also declined to say whether the remains might belong to Jon Hemingway, the Nantucket man who is believed to have drowned after falling from his boat on a return trip to Nantucket from Hyannis with his wife and two young children in March. Police have contacted Hemingway's wife, Katie Hemingway, regarding the discovery on Coatue, and retrieved his old toothbrushes from her Field Avenue home to assist with

LEG, PAGE 5A

Island man believed lost at sea after boat washes up on Steps Beach
Picture
Nantucket 's history is filled

with tales of men lost at

sea. but the disappearance of Jon Hemingway in March could go down as one of the most bizarre and tragic.

Hemingway, an island landscapes disappeared at sea on the night of March 17 in a strange boating accident in Nantucket Sound, leaving his wife and two daughters sleeping in the cabin of their 22-foot powerboat which began spiraling erratically out of control nine miles north of Nantucket before grounding near Steps Beach the following morning.

A massive 21-hour search for Heminir.vav on land and sea hv the Coast Guard and local police was eventually called off. and his body was never found.

Officials believe the Hemingways left Hyannis for Nantucket at 9 p.m. the night he disappeared, and his wife and daughters went to sleep in the berth of their Maritime Patriot the Katie B at 9:15 p.m. After completing a review of the boat's GPS navigation data, authorities concluded that Hemingway went overboard about nine miles off Nantucket at 11:15 p.m. when the course became erratic, drifting south in clockwise circles before the boat grounded around 1 a.m.

Katie Hemingway, Jon's wife, said she awoke several times earlv that morning knowing the boat was beached, but believing her husband - an experienced boater - was working on freeing the vessel from a shoal or had gone into town to get assistance, she went back to sleep with her children before finally calling for help around 7 a.m.

A local fisherman and friend of Jon Hemingway answered the call and picked up the family from the beach. He told Katie Hemingway and police officers that he had spoken to Jon on the phone that morning, a story that he later recanted, but which compromised the initial response and investigation. His statement delayed Coast Guard notification of Hemingway's disappearance until 2 p.m., and later generated wild speculation among island residents about what may have happened that night, but officials were satisfied there was no wrongdoing or foul play in Hemingway's disappearance.

Until Hemingway's body is found, he is considered missing. A so-called death in absentia is usually not declared until seven years after a person is declared missing, but can sometimes be declared earlier in special cases as when there's a witness to the alleged death.

In September, the skeletal remains of a human leg, with a sock and boot still clinging to the foot, washed up on Coatue, and while Katie Hemingway believes it likely belongs to her husband, authorities have not yet completed DNA testing to identify the remains.

During a memorial service following his disappearance, Hemingway's connection to the sea was the defining trait that his friends and family recalled as they offered their remembrances. Hemingway 36, owned the island landscaping company HemingwayScapes, Inc., but could be found most often on his boat, heading out of Hither Creek in Madaket to go lobstering. scalloping, tuna-fishing or to his favorite spot on Tuckernuck Island, where he was a caretaker for a property.



---------------------
Hemingway: Leg bone found on Coatue key
Picture
File photo by Nicole Harnishfeger

Nantucket Police canine officer John Muhr and Arno examine the KatieB in March 2010, which washed up on Steps Beach. Island landscaper Jon Hemingway was believed to have fallen from the boat and drowned while it was en route from Hyannis to Nantucket with his wife and two daughters aboard.

(Continued from page 1 A)

“It’s a huge relief. Katie’s life has been in limbo the last 18-plus months. It’s been an unbelievably trying process, waiting for the state medical examiner’s office to make their determination,” Glidden said. “Now, hopefully, she can start moving on with her life.”

Hemingway can now proceed with the probate-administration process, Glidden said, addressing assets the couple owned jointly, including a property that is currently being foreclosed upon that can now hopefully be retained.

“We’re looking at selling some jointly-owned properties and paying down the debt so that she can hold on to the property under foreclosure,” Glidden said. “She was just stuck before.”

Glidden added that she did not believe Jon Hemingway had life insurance.

After Hemingway’s remains were discovered Sept. 23, 2010 by rangers working for the Trustees of Reservations, police contacted Katie Hemingway and retrieved her husband’s toothbrushes from her Field Avenue home to assist with the DNA testing. She also showed investigators a pair of her husband’s work boots, which they said were similar to the one found still attached to the human remains that washed up on Coatue. “It’s a huge relief. Katie’s life has been in limbo the last 18-plus months. It’s been an unbelievably trying process, waiting for the state medical examiner’s office to make their determination.”

— Jessie Glidden

Attorney for Katie Hemingway

“I feel in my heart that it’s him,” Hemingway said at the time.

After the leg was discovered, law-enforcement authorities collected the remains and sent them to the state medical examiner’s office in Boston for identification. From there, the DNA testing was outsourced to a lab in Minnesota. The results were returned to the Massachusetts medical examiner’s office earlier this fall, but were not released because officials there were not satisfied with the methods used by the Minnesota lab.

Glidden said this week a second round of tests were conducted, which satisfied the state medical-examiner’s office.

“Apparently they needed nuclear DNA testing to release the certificate, but the lab did mitochondrial DNA testing,” she said. “I don’t know why they didn’t do it the first time around.”

Following Hemingway’s disappearance last year, officials pieced together the chain of events that led to the incident, and stated that they believed the family left Hyannis for Nantucket at 9 p.m. March 17 on their boat, and Katie Hemingway and her two daughters went to sleep in the berth of the Maritime Patriot, the Katie B. After completing a review of the boat’s GPS navigational data, authorities said they believe Hemingway fell overboard about nine miles off Nantucket at 11:15 p.m. when the course became erratic, drifting south in clockwise circles before the boat grounded on Steps Beach around 1 a.m.

Island police and the Cape and Island District Attorney’s office stated there was nothing suspicious about Hemingway’s disappearance, and they had found no evidence of foul play. Like the family, police investigators said Hemingway likely fell overboard, possibly while relieving himself off the side of the boat.

I&M senior writer Jason Graziadei contributed to this report.

-------------------------

DNA tests on leg bone found still not back from police lab

By Jason Graziadei I&M Senior Writer

One year has passed since island landscaper Jon Hemingway disappeared under strange circumstances during a late-night crossing of Nantucket Sound with his family, never to be heard from again. Investigators found no evidence of foul play, and announced that Hemingway simply drowned in a tragic boating accident. His wife, Katie Hemingway, believes her husband likely fell from the boat while trying to relieve himself during the crossing. Other than those assertions, there have been few answers in a case that stunned Nantucketers last March and led to wild speculation and false rumors on the island.

Remains found on Coatue still not identified

The grim discovery on a Coatue beach last September of the skeletal remains of a human leg, with a sock and boot clinging to the foot, led many to believe that Hemingway could at the very least be declared dead. But more than six months later, DNA testing of the remains has still not been completed, according to the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s office.

“The situation hasn’t changed, there’s no new information,” Nantucket police Lt. Det. Jerry Adams said this week. “We’re still waiting for the DNA evidence on the lower leg that was found on Coatue. Technically he’s a missing person, but the belief is that he’s deceased.”

For Katie Hemingway, the lack of closure and inability to secure a death certificate for her husband has left many aspects of her life in limbo. Family assets can’t be released, she said, and other estate considerations are on hold until the issue is resolved. She has transitioned the landscaping business she owned with her husband,



Delays painful for family

“My family is doing fine, and we’re grateful to be here,” Hemingway said. “We miss him incredibly and we try to stay positive and remember what a wonderful person he was.”

She also expressed exasperation with the length of time involved in identifying the remains discovered on Coatue.

“It’s ridiculous this process has to be so slow,” she added. “There’s no death certificate and no DNA evidence and I’m on hold until those pieces of information are given to me. I can’t release any assets without the death certificate. There’s been a lot of local people and lawyers who are helping me a lot and navigating these things for me.”

Attorney Michael Wilson, who has been attempting to secure an official death certificate on Hemingway’s behalf, said the state Environmental Police, the agency which investigates boating accidents in Massachusetts, has closed the case, concluding that it is “presumed Jonathan Hemingway drowned and his body is lost at sea,” according to the final report authored by Sgt. Richard Sylvia.

A so-called death in absentia is

Jon Hemingway usually not declared until seven years after the person goes missing, but can sometimes be declared earlier in special cases when there’s a witness to the alleged deadly event.

Remembering the event

Just over one year ago, Hemingway left Hyannis Harbor in his Maritime Patriot KatieBaround 9 p.m. with his wife and their two young daughters, who went below deck to sleep in the small berth of the boat. Investigators believe Hemingway fell overboard about nine miles north of Nantucket, as the boat’s GPS navigation data showed the vessel’s course became erratic, drifting south in clockwise circles before it grounded on Steps Beach around 1 a.m.

Katie Hemingway said she awoke several times early that morning knowing the boat was beached, but believing her husband – who was an experienced boater – was working on removing the vessel from a shoal or had gone into town to get help, and she went back to sleep with her children before finally calling for help around 7 a.m.

A local fisherman and friend of Jon Hemingway answered the call and picked up the family from the beach that morning. He told Katie Hemingway and police officers that he had spoken to Jon on the phone – a story that he later recanted, but which compromised the initial response and investigation. The statement delayed Coast Guard notification of Hemingway’s disappearance until 2 p.m. on March 18, and quickly spawned wild rumors among island residents about what may have happened that night.

“There’s always a twist in any tragedy, and some have more peculiarities than others,” Adams said. “It’s one of those Nantucket tales that will always carry the stories and speculations for years. If that body part comes back and it’s identified as Mr. Hemingway, that should resolve the issue of his disappearance.”

When the remains were discovered in September 2010, Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe said the identification process would be a lengthy one, but that he expected results in four to five months. A representative from his office said this week that results were still not in, and did not offer an updated timetable.

Town Clerk Catherine Flanagan Stover, who handles all vital records including death certificates, was well aware of the issues involving Hemingway and his surviving family.

“We’re waiting on the DNA findings and the last time we spoke to someone who might know about that (last month) they said it would be another month or two,” Flanagan Stover said.“They know that we’re waiting and they’re trying to do it as quickly as possible. The family needs funds and there’s Social Security things they can get.”

-----------------------
Closure: Death certificate issued for Jon Hemingway
Picture
By Joshua Balling

I&M Assistant Editor

Nearly two years after he was believed to have drowned after falling from his boat on a trip home to Nantucket from Hyannis, the state medical examiner’s office has issued a death certificate for island landscaper Jon Hemingway.

The certificate, which listed the cause of death as “undetermined,” was issued Oct. 22, more than a year after the bones of a human leg, with a sock and boot still clinging to the foot, were discovered on the beach at Coatue on the island’s north shore. Law-enforcement authorities and island residents, including his widow Katie, immediately suspected the remains belonged to Hemingway, 37, but definitive DNA testing was only recently completed that confirmed the identity, officials said. The certificate lists the date of death as Sept. 23, 2010, the day the remains were discovered on Coatue.

The issuance of the death certificate – signed by state medical examiner Peter Cummings – brings a certain measure of closure to an extremely trying time for Katie Hemingway, who was on the boat with her husband and two young daughters March 17, 2010 when he is believed to have fallen overboard, her attorney Jessie Glidden said this week. It will also allow her to finalize a number of estate issues that have been in limbo for the past 20 months.