A town in New Jersey has announced a reward for any information leading to the whereabouts of a Rutgers University student who has been missing since November.
Jackson Township has allocated $2,000 for tips that could help find Mortimer Wortman, a 22-year-old senior at Rutgers.
The reward is personally funded by Mayor Jennifer Kuhn and Councilman Christopher Pollak.
According to NJ.com, Ivan Marks, Mortimer’s brother, stated that surveillance footage captured his disappearance from a school parking lot on November 21.
Last week, Nicholas Moccio, Wortman’s friend and roommate at Rutgers, raised the issue during a township council meeting.
“Mortimer’s family deserves answers,” Moccio emphasized during the meeting. “Residents of Jackson Township need assurance that their community will take action when someone is missing.”
Marks said his brother met up with a man named Adam Zalouk at the school’s parking lot the night he disappeared. Zalouk had threatened Wortman with a knife previously.
Zalouk told police they argued but Wortman ran off into the woods at Colliers Mills.
However, police have not named any suspects or persons of interest in the case.
Moccio said friends and family have continued to search the area everyday since November.
“We desperately want this young man to return to his friends and loved ones,” Kuhn and Pollak said in a joint statement. “Together we hope this reward may convince someone who saw something or heard something, to come forward.”
Wortman is described as 5’10” and 200 pounds with light skin, dark brown hair, brown eyes and piercings in his nose and ears.
A candlelight vigil for Wortman is scheduled for Sunday evening outside the Regional Day School in Jackson Township.
