Authorities and volunteers are preparing for another search for a Rutgers University student from New Jersey who has been missing for nearly a year.
Mortimer Mekhai Wortman IV, 22, was last captured on surveillance video on the night of November 21 in the parking lot of Regional Day School in Jackson, New Jersey.
The footage reportedly shows Wortman entering a vehicle driven by Adam Zalouk. Months earlier, Zalouk had threatened Wortman with a knife and carved the word ‘slut’ into his car, according to News 12 New Jersey.
Zalouk reported Wortman missing to 911 the following day.
“Around 10:30 or 11, we had an argument in the car and said he would rather walk home and he stormed out and just kinda disappeared into the trees,” Zalouk told the dispatcher, according to a recording obtained by Asbury Park Press.
Nicholas Moccio, a friend of Wortman, said the surveillance video showing the student’s final known sighting has not been made public or provided to his family.
Wortman’s mother, Johanna Reyes, had been expecting her son to return home on the day he disappeared, NJ.com reported.
Reyes previously told NJ.com that when she found her son’s abandoned vehicle, its GPS showed he had been traveling home before stopping at the school.
A friend described Wortman as “funny, sweet, caring, smart” and someone who “would literally give you the shirt off his back without you having to ask.”
Wortman’s friends and relatives are planning another community search on November 21, 2026—the one-year anniversary of the Rutgers student’s disappearance.
Volunteers will meet at Regional Day School, where Wortman was last seen, before searching the surrounding area.
Family member Monica Rios Janney said Wortman loved music, art, fashion and plants, adding that he “is so very loved by all those who know him.”
In April 2026, Zalouk was ordered to pay Wortman’s mother $2,783 after pleading guilty to threatening her son and slashing his vehicle when Wortman rejected his sexual advances, News 12 New Jersey reported.
On November 21, 2026, exactly one year after Wortman vanished, his loved ones will lead a community search through the wooded areas around Regional Day School in Jackson, New Jersey.
During a Jackson council meeting on October 13, Moccio criticized what he described as the town’s limited response and lack of support for efforts to locate Wortman. He delivered his remarks at the council meeting.
“Do you know what it’s like to see your best friend’s mom digging through brush and dirt in the middle of the night alone, calling out his name hoping somehow he’ll hear her calls?” Moccio asked.
YOU MAY ALSO READ: Heart Transplant Recipient Dies by Suicide After Receiving Heart From Donor Who Died by Suicide
Moccio also accused police of failing to respond adequately to Wortman’s disappearance.
“It took us less than 30 minutes to find an eight-inch knife in a black leather sheath on Highbridge Road, the only road that leads to Morty’s last known location, 500 feet away from Morty’s car parked in the school lot,” he said.
“It’s clear the police haven’t done their jobs properly or they would’ve found it in the eight hours they had before we got there.”
Last month, Moccio posted videos he said he recorded during a search. The footage appeared to show Jackson Police Department officers laughing in front of Wortman’s family and friends.
Wortman seen with family who say they aren’t giving up on looking for the senior Rutgers student
Mortimer Wortman’s friend Nicholas Moccio shared a photo which allegedly depicts Zalouk’s father, Sam Zalouk, tearing down Wortman’s missing posters.
Adam Zalouk was the last person to see Mortimer Wartman before he disappeared. A few months prior, Zalouk threatened Wortman with a knife and carved the word ‘slut’ into his car
‘It’s been 327 days. No updates, no sight of Morty, no suspects named, too many lies to count,’ he said, ‘we still need help because we haven’t gotten the help we need,’ Moccio said at the council meeting.
‘It’s been 11 months,’ Wortman’s mother Johanna Reyes told NJ.com, ‘the same information that I got from day one is still the only information I have.’
Wortman’s friends and family have been sharing updates and information on search efforts across social media and the website Bring Morty Home.
An image shared by the Bring Morty Home Facebook page featured a post from Zalouk’s Facebook, which read: ‘If anyone wants to search the area where he was last seen, it was by the fire pit down Success Road.
If you have any actual questions for me which could be helpful for finding Mortimer, please let me know. Otherwise, stop with all these nonsense allegations.’
Moccio shared a photo which allegedly depicts Zalouk’s father, Sam Zalouk, tearing down Wortman’s missing posters.
‘This is Adam’s Dad taking down our posters,’ Moccio wrote.’
A GoFundMe was started by Wortman’s brother Ivan Marks to raise funds to support the community’s search for Wortman.
