TREVORTON - A day-long search of an off-road area ended with a body being found off of Gap Road in Zerbe Township about 5:30 p.m. Friday.
Zerbe Township Police Chief Robert John reported earlier in the day that emergency crews were searching for Thomas Kruskie Jr., 25, of Shamokin, who was riding a green Polaris side-by-side off-road vehicle with friends at approximately 5:30 p.m. Thursday when he got a flat tire, became angry and drove off.
However, as of Friday night, authorities had not confirmed the identity of the body that was found.
According to reports from the scene, three young males on ATVs found the body at the bottom of a remote and extremely rocky road with a 70-degree incline approximately two miles from Gap Road in Zerbe Township.
John, along with county emergency management agency personnel, and firefighters from Trevorton and Coal Township, staged in Zerbe Township in an area locally known as "the flats," off Upper Road, between Point Breeze and Trevorton, starting at about 11:30 a.m.
At the request of police, Verizon had "pinged" the missing man's cell phone around 8 a.m. Friday, which indicated a find near Smurf's Pond and The Mile in the mountainous coal lands south of Trevorton. Emergency personnel in ATVs and a state police helicopter searched the area, to no avail.
Jerome Alex, director of Northumberland County Department of Public Safety, said pieces of Kruskie's vehicle were found east of the staging area, which he said might indicate the vehicle struck something, leading to the flat tire.
Members of the Brady Fire Company were dis-
patched to the area near Northwestern Academy, east of Ranshaw some 10 miles from the staging area, after a ping between 12:15 p.m. and 12:30 p.m., and another at 12:46 p.m. indicated the phone was in that area. Crews also continued their search in Zerbe and Coal Township.
"It was a real-time ping," Alex said Friday afternoon. "He is not answering his phone. We tried calling, but it just rang, and eventually went to voice mail."
Another ping at 2 p.m. came from the tower near Cliff Street in Zerbe Township.
The search was called off at approximately 5 p.m., but personnel were called back into service 45 minutes later to provide lighting at the scene where the body was found.
At 6:30 p.m. John reported he was waiting for the coroner to arrive.
Attempts to reach John late Friday night were unsuccessful.