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Body of man missing since escaping from a hospital in 2025 found in lake
The body of Leonard Mercury, 57, was found floating in a lake nearly five months after his disappearance, officials said.
The body of the man who went missing from a Gardner hospital in October was found in a lake on Wednesday, officials said.
The body of Leonard Mercury of Acton was pulled from Crystal Lake in Gardner after police conducted a search for the missing man, the Worcester County District Attorney’s office said in a statement.
Mercury, 57, had been missing since Oct. 31, when he was last seen leaving Heywood Hospital toward a bike path, the DA said.
According to his wife, Nicole La Guerre, Mercury was in mental and medical distress, Boston.com reported in November.
Mercury escaped the hospital by breaking a window and jumping from the second floor. He was only wearing hospital clothing and had no shoes.
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Throughout the nearly five months since his disappearance, police conducted multiple searches across six different departments, the DA said
On the day of his discovery, Gardner police used drones to search the lake’s surface which showed a human body floating in the water. The State Police Dive Team then retrieved the body which was later identified as Mercury, the DA said.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine the cause and manner of Mercury’s death, according to the DA.
The incident remains under investigation.
An earlier version of this story misidentified the location of Gardner’s Crystal Lake.
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