East Greenbush police find Dominick Bianchi dead in wooded area

Dominick Bianchi, a 35-year-old newlywed with Type 1 diabetes who left his East Greenbush, New York, home on Sept. 8 without his phone, wallet or car, was found dead in a wooded area over the weekend, police said.

The East Greenbush Police Department extends its deepest condolences to Dominick's family, loved ones, and all those affected by this tragic loss.

The East Greenbush Police Department confirmed the death in a statement issued on Sunday night, Sept. 13, saying Bianchi had been found deceased in a wooded area. It did not release a cause of death. The statement was issued by Detective Sergeant Michael Guadagnino on behalf of the department.

What police have released

Bianchi was last seen at about 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 8, leaving his home on Forrest Pointe Drive on foot, according to the missing person report the department published. He left behind his phone, his wallet and his car.

That report described him as 5 feet 11 inches tall, with blue-green eyes, brown hair and a beard, last seen in black sweatpants and a black long-sleeve shirt, and possibly a baseball hat. It listed a skull and roses tattooed on his chest, a baseball on his right arm and a cross on his back.

Police said in the same report that there was no threat to public safety. ABC News, reporting on Sept. 11, called the search urgent and said police had described Bianchi as diabetic and possibly in need of medication. East Greenbush sits just outside Albany.

A monitor paired to a phone

Bianchi wore a continuous glucose monitor, but the device was paired to the phone he had left at the house, his wife, Julianna Zyra, told WTEN, the ABC affiliate in Albany. She said she did not know whether he had any insulin with him.

His family assumed he was without insulin and without any way to check his blood sugar, and that he needed medical attention immediately.

Zyra told the station that her husband had been struggling with his mental health for some time before he left, and that almost nobody around him knew. She gave that account on camera while the search was still under way.

Zyra, 33, married Bianchi a few months before he disappeared, the Daily Beast reported. The family treated the case as dire in the first days because of the diabetes, the Hudson Valley Post reported, and because the equipment he used to track it was tied to a phone sitting at home.

What the evidence does not show

Police have not released a cause of death, and the statement issued Sunday night did not describe the circumstances in which Bianchi was found. It did not say at what point during the weekend he was located.

The two circumstances that drove the search, his insulin dependence and his mental health, were raised while Bianchi was still missing, by police in the case of the diabetes and by his wife in the case of his state of mind. Both were reasons his family gave for believing he needed help within hours. Neither has been tied by police to how he died.

The department did not say who found Bianchi, or whether the people who reached him were officers, volunteers or both. It has described the place only as a wooded area.

Police have also not said whether he had insulin or any medical equipment with him when he was found.

Most of what is publicly known about the week rests on two sets of accounts, the appeals the department published while Bianchi was missing and the interviews Zyra gave to WTEN. Neither describes what happened after he walked away from Forrest Pointe Drive on the Tuesday morning.

By the time he was found, Bianchi had been missing five days.

How the search was run

Drones and canine teams were used to look for Bianchi, and the search pulled in other agencies including the New York State Police, East Greenbush Police Department Assistant Chief James Condo told WTEN. Local residents took part as well. The department has not said how many people searched, or how much ground they covered.

Residents were asked to check their properties, sheds, cars, trail cameras and any home surveillance footage, and to call the department if they saw anything, according to the missing person report. The request was aimed at working out where Bianchi had gone after leaving his home. The search began on Sept. 8 in the Capital Region.

The plea before the discovery

While the search was still under way, Zyra sat for an interview and spoke directly to her husband. Her appeal was reported on Sept. 10, when police were still asking the public for help.

Whatever it is that's going on, there are so many people who care about you and want you to be home.

She closed the appeal by telling him that if he was seeing it, he should come home. In the same interview, Zyra asked the public to stop hypothesizing about what had happened, and said her husband was "very sick" and "not in the right headspace." She also said she believed he may have changed clothes, after finding black clothing in the couple's laundry.

Where the case stands now

The statement issued Sunday night is the whole of the department's public account of the outcome. It records that Bianchi was found dead in a wooded area and that police want his family left alone to grieve. No timetable has been given for anything further.

The appeals police put out while he was missing described a man who might need medication and asked residents to look for him. They did not address his mental health, which was described publicly only by his wife. What the department knew about his condition before the search began has not been made public.

Nothing released so far addresses whether Bianchi's diabetes played any part in his death, or whether he was able to check his blood sugar at any point after leaving the house. The department's statement referred to an investigation without describing what it covers.

No sighting of Bianchi between the Tuesday morning he left and the discovery of his body has been made public.

Gratitude and a privacy request

In the same statement, police thanked members of the public who provided assistance, information and support throughout the investigation, saying the cooperation was appreciated. They asked that the privacy of Bianchi's family and loved ones be honored while they grieve and begin to process the loss.