On May 15, 2015, 75-year-old Stanley M. Zdep of Loveladies, New Jersey, was reported overdue after a day of boating. He left his home port that morning and navigated through the Barnegat Inlet; when he failed to return his wife reported him as an overdue boater. At departure he was described as a white male, 5 feet 10 inches, about 200 pounds, with gray or partly gray hair and gray eyes, wearing navy trousers, a grey Tommey Keller hoodie, and a grey boonie hat.

The New Jersey State Police mounted a search focused on the coastal waters he frequented. Responders later located his boat unoccupied, and the case shifted from search and rescue to a missing person investigation handled by the State Police Missing Persons Unit under case number V530201500010. How Zdep became separated from his vessel is not known and the investigation remains open.

If anyone was on the water near Barnegat Inlet that day or has information about an unoccupied small boat matching this description, please share what is known.