Body of famed photographer Peter Beard found in woods 19 days after he went missing from Long Island home
The body of famed photographer Peter Beard was found on Sunday, April 19, in a densely wooded area close to his East Hampton home.
The famed photographer went missing around 19 days ago. Beard's family confirmed his death after a hunter spotted a piece of clothing which led the police to locate a body that they believed was his in a wooded area close to Montauk Point.
Beard had dementia and suffered at least one stroke. According to authorities, they had started searching for Beard ever since he was last seen by his wife Nejma on their property on March 31 at around 4.40 pm in the afternoon.
The police revealed that they had used helicopters, drones, dogs and more than 75 cops and firefighters to help with the search. They added that friends, family, and neighbors had also joined in to try and find Beard.
Beard's body was discovered in Camp Hero State Park in Montauk and is now awaiting a positive identification by the Suffolk County Medical Examiner. Many fans and followers took to social media to comment saying, "Sad and terrible loss."
One said, "How sad. Rest In Peace." Another shared, "So sad. Dementia is a terrible disease." While another wrote, "Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, learn how to overcome the feeling of regret."
The photographer is best known for his photographs of African wildlife and his longtime friendship with Andy Warhol. One of his most iconic photographs had been the one that featured naked model Maureen Gallagher hand-feeding a giraffe at his 45-acre Hog Ranch located outside Nairobi. One of the prints of this photograph reportedly sold at $326,000 in 2011.
Gallagher had got candid and revealed that she had a long affair with Beard, post the trip to Kenya. "I went there for three weeks and stayed there for three months. I canceled all my bookings. I was 22 and I was in love," she shared. It is also believed that on one occasion he had got Mick Jagger so drunk that he fell asleep on Warhol's bed.
Beard had been married to supermodel Chery Tiegs for a few years in the 1980s had also affairs with Candice Bergen and Jackie Onassis's sister Lee Radziwill. He had also babysat for John Kennedy Jr and his sister Caroline and was the man who discovered Somali model Iman.
In 2017, Beard's wife Nejma had placed him in a psych ward at the St Luke's Roosevelt Hospital after he got two Russian prostitutes to their home. Nejma also claimed that Beard had been suicidal when he had returned to their Manhattan apartment at 6 am.
However, in court papers, Beard had denied it. "The next thing you know I was not allowed to leave the hospital, but it was not for any reason," Beard had testified during a civil lawsuit. In another lawsuit, Natalie White, who is believed to be a muse of Beard's claimed that Nejma had "kept her husband on a tight financial leash, and made him sleep on the marble floor of their apartment," New York Post reveals.