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KEVIN GUTTING

A Northampton police van enters the parking lot of the Coachlight Condominiums at 72-74 Barrett Street Sunday evening, where Northampton police and fire units and state police staged to respond to a body found in the wetland area between the parking lot and Carlon Drive to the east.

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KEVIN GUTTING

Massachusetts State Police and Northampton Police and Fire department personnel set up a staging area in the parking lot of the Coachlight Condominiums at 72-74 Barrett St. Sunday evening in response to the discovery of a body in the wetland area between the parking lot and Carlon Drive to the east.

NORTHAMPTON - Three men. Each found dead within a span of just over two weeks. All located in bodies of water around the city.

District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel said Monday evening that the man whose body was found Sunday evening was Richard D. Hale, 45. Police located him in a patch of swampland not far from his 80 Barrett St. home.

With the discovery came a question on many minds: Should city residents be concerned that someone is stalking and killing men in the city, leaving their bodies in Northampton wetlands?

"No," said Detective Lt. Ken Watson of the Northampton Police Department. Watson directed all other inquiries to the Northwestern district attorney's office.

Scheibel said, at least preliminarily, the three deaths appear unrelated.

"It does not appear at this early stage of the investigation to be related to the other two deaths that occurred in the water, or (where) the bodies were found in the water," said Scheibel. "The investigation is very much an active one."

Dr. Loren J. Mednick of the state Medical Examiner's Office in Holyoke said an autopsy was completed Monday, but said he could not release details about the results. Scheibel said the cause of death had not yet been determined, and that a toxicology report would be forthcoming.

The case is eerily similar to two others from the beginning of the month. On May 9, the body of Gary Schack, 55, of Northampton, was found by a passer-by about 4 p.m., floating in the Mill River off Mount Tom Road near Highway Auto Salvage. His body was so badly decomposed that dental records were needed for identification.

An autopsy was performed, but toxicology results are still pending.

On May 10, Michael A. Mikalunas, 36, of Amherst, was found dead, floating in Rococo Pond by a person visiting the area that day. The spot is well known for fishing, and not far from where Schack's body was recovered.

An autopsy was also performed on Mikalunas' body, which was identified through fingerprints and tattoos. Toxicology reports on Mikalunas are also pending.

Mednick said he could not comment on the autopsies in either case.

So far, police maintain that the first two deaths are not suspicious and are unrelated.

Northampton police and state police are working on the investigation, with Assistant District Attorney Mike Cahillane overseeing the case, said Scheibel.