The body of a 21-year-old man missing from Albany since December may have been found Tuesday in the Hudson River. Albany police say personal items found on a body discovered floating in the water indicate it is Joshua Szostak.

A confirmation has not been formally made

Szostak disappeared sometime after he left the Bayou Cafe in downtown Albany just before Christmas.

Since then, his family and friends have been actively and relentlessly searching for him. They tried retracing his steps, hanging up posters, hiring an investigator -- doing everything they could to find the missing man.

There was a search of the Hudson River in January in Albany using sonar technology, nothing was found.

Then, miles away in Coxsackie and months later, a boater found a body in the Hudson River. It was a white male floating freely in the water with some personal belongings. Albany police say they believe it is Szostak.

"Items that were found on him, and I''m not going to get into the specifics of it, lead us to believe that it is him, but obviously we don''t have confirmation until the autopsy is complete," Public Safety spokesman James Miller said.

Miller says the clothing, too, is consistent with what they missing person had at the time.

Police are trying to figure out, if it is Szostak, what happened that December night and how he ended up in the water.

"The difficult part in that was right from the beginning. You don''t want to speculate on anything that happened," Miller said. "There was an indication that he was out with friends and that he was drinking and was intoxicated. How he got into the Hudson River, hopefully we''ll learn more from the autopsy."

The autopsy is being done at St. Peter''s Hospital. Police are hoping to get an identification and a cause of death as their investigation continues.