Body pulled from Wakefield lake believed to be that of missing man

Local News

Jason Thomas, 45, was reported missing on Dec. 13, hours after he left his home in Wakefield and failed to return.

Jason Thomas has been missing since Dec. 12. Wakefield Police Department

March 17, 2026 | 4:09 PM

1 minute to read

Authorities in Wakefield believe they have recovered the body of a local man who went missing in December after his family said he “vanished” in the night.

Jason Thomas, 45, was reported missing on Dec. 13, hours after he left his home in Wakefield and failed to return, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Wakefield Chief of Police Steven Skory said in a joint statement.

Police scoured the area with K-9 units and drones, and Thomas’s family and friends launched a GoFundMe to raise money for private investigators. On Tuesday afternoon, a Wakefield police detective was searching around Lake Quannapowitt when they spotted a body in the previously-frozen water, according to Ryan and Skory.

Wakefield police used a drone to confirm the detective’s discovery, and police and fire crews recovered the body. Ryan and Skory said preliminary information, including clothing, suggested it was Thomas.

He was last seen shortly before midnight on Dec. 12 in the area of Murray and Chestnut streets, a short distance from Lake Quannapowitt.

According to Ryan and Skory, the state’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will conclusively determine the person’s identity and their cause and manner of death. Police do not suspect foul play at this time, they noted.

Thomas, a scientist at the pharmaceutical company Novartis, lost both of his parents last fall and was having a difficult time coping, his wife, Kristen Bartoli, told Boston 25 News in January.

“He’s an only child,” Bartoli told the news outlet. “It was really overwhelming.”

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.

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