HOBOKEN -- After leaving a Hoboken bar Saturday night and telling his friends he was heading home on Garden Street, westward, 24-year-old Matthew Genovese instead walked east, toward the river.

The body of Genovese was found in the Hudson River Tuesday, Hoboken Police Chief Ken Ferrante confirmed at a press conference.

At about 11:30 on Saturday night, the Hoboken resident told his friends at McSwiggan's Pub that he was headed home, a 10-minute walk, officials said Tuesday morning.

Genovese lived 10 blocks away from the pub, in an uptown apartment on Garden Street, police said.

However, according to Ferrante, although Genovese had told his friends he was heading home, which would have meant heading west toward Garden Street, he instead headed east toward the river, for unclear reasons.

Genovese's family reported him missing Monday afternoon after he did not show up to his job on Wall Street, Ferrante said. A police officer who was searching for Genovese near the waterfront location around Pier A where Genovese was later found, found the young man's wallet in the snow, Ferrante told reporters at a 4:30 p.m. press conference.

"All his cash, credit cards, IDs were all still in the wallet," Ferrante said.

Genovese was last seen wearing a red, orange and grey flannel shirt over a grey Fordham University T-shirt with maroon text, tan khaki pants, and tan Timberland boots, and he was found in those same clothes, Ferrante said.

Ferrante said that he would not speculate about how Genovese ended up in the water, and that it was an ongoing investigation with the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office. He said that police interviewed Genovese's friends, but he declined to divulge what they said, because of the ongoing status of the case.

Before Genovese was found, friends posted about Genovese's disappearance on social media. Danny Massa, 25, of the Bronx, the boyfriend of Genovese's sister, told NJ Advance Media Tuesday morning that he and others had been searching for Genovese.

For hours on Tuesday afternoon, two police boats were stationed outside the Hoboken train terminal, and Ferrante confirmed at 3:15 p.m. that a body was found in the water at 1:25 p.m. by New York Police Department divers.

@jerseyjournal Unfortunately the search is over. Keys and wallet found by pier. His body is being pulled up now pic.twitter.com/wM8e1Y50ti — Joey Silva (@joecool57h) January 26, 2016

Several news crews were stationed near the scene, where authorities cordoned off a two-block stretch of riverfront walkway. Ferrante and Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer both arrived at the scene at about 3 p.m.

Many bodies have been pulled from the Hudson River over the years, but it is relatively rare that a body is from Hoboken, as was also the case almost two years ago, with 27-year-old Hoboken resident Andrew Jarzyk.

Jarzyk went missing on March 30, 2014, one month before his body was pulled from the Hudson River.

The medical examiner determined that Jarzyk's death was an accident, that he'd drowned, and intoxication had played a role, said Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Gene Rubino. He was last seen in restaurant surveillance footage running along the waterfront after 1 a.m., police said.

Just two weeks after Jarzyk's body was found, two young Newark men drowned in the Hoboken waterfront, when one man fell into the water and his friend jumped in to save him.

Laura Herzog may be reached at lherzog@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LauraHerzogL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook.