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Former Federal Prosecutor Missing from UWS Senior Home Found Dead

Richard Appleby, 66, went missing from the Atria senior resident on the Upper West Side on May 24, 2012, police said.
Richard Appleby, 66, went missing from the Atria senior resident on the Upper West Side on May 24, 2012, police said.
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NYPD

UPPER WEST SIDE — A former federal prosecutor who disappeared from a luxury senior residence on the Upper West Side was found dead last week near Long Island, police said.

The body of Richard Appleby, 66, was discovered in Little Neck Bay in Nassau County, an NYPD spokesman said Thursday.

An unidentified woman found the body floating near the town of Saddle Rock on May 25, a Nassau County Police spokesman said. The Nassau County Medical Examiner's Office later identified the body as Appleby's.

Appleby was reported missing on May 25 and was last seen a day earlier inside the Atria West 86 independent living facility at 333 W. 86th St. He had Parkinson's disease, police said, without elaborating on how far advanced his case was.

Richard Appleby disappeared from the Atria senior residence at 333 W. 86th St. on May 24, 2012.
Richard Appleby disappeared from the Atria senior residence at 333 W. 86th St. on May 24, 2012.
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DNAinfo/Leslie Albrecht

In some instances, Parkinson's sufferers develop dementia.

Appleby was an assistant prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Eastern District office in Brooklyn from 1974 to 1982, a spokesman said.

He had lived at the Atria for nearly a year, said Sheridan Daniel, regional vice president of Atria Senior Living. Daniel declined to comment further because police were still investigating Appleby's disappearance.

People who live in the building said they were troubled that Atria officials hadn't posted signs alerting residents to Appleby's disappearance.

"I think if someone in the building goes missing, wouldn't you first of all let their neighbors know?" said Kennedy Fraser, who's lived in the building since 1976. "That would seem the first place to start."

A Department of Health spokesman said Atria informed both law enforcement and state officials about Appleby's disappearance "in accordance with state law."

Atria, a national chain of senior facilities, took over the 22-story building at 333 W. 86th St. in the late 1990s. The company, which bills itself as a luxury residence for "seasoned New Yorkers," is licensed as an "enriched living" senior residence. Residents must be 65 or older to live in the Atria units in the building.

The 230-unit building was previously a rent-stabilized apartment building, and approximately 50 rent-stabilized units still remain, tenants said.

Three years ago a group of rent-stabilized tenants filed a lawsuit, which is still in the courts, claiming Atria intentionally neglected repairs on their apartments as a way to push them out to make way for higher-paying senior clients. The Atria's units cost $5,375 per month for studios and $9,175 a month for two bedrooms.