Human Remains Found By Henry Hudson Trail Are Those Of Middletown Man, Missing For 10 Years

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — In November 2024, human skeletal remains were found near the Henry Hudson Trail in Middletown, and in October, they were identified as a young man from Middletown who went missing 10 years ago, a spokesman for the Monmouth County Prosecutor said Wednesday.

The remains are those of John Paul Fernandez, who went missing in December 2015 from his family's home on Kentucky Avenue in Middletown.

On Nov. 4, 2024 human remains were found on the Henry Hudson Trail in the area of Willow Street.

The remains were identified as Fernandez's on Oct. 14 of this year, said the prosecutor's office.

Fernandez was last seen at 1:30 a.m. on December 13, 2015. He was 22 at the time, grew up in Middletown and graduated from Middletown High School North. He was a student at Seton Hall University, in his senior year studying accounting when he went missing.

His mother told a Filipino-American news organization her son had left a six-page suicide letter hidden inside a toy in his bedroom the day he left. He had suffered from bullying at Middletown North, she said.

There was a massive police search for him when he first went missing, including a dive team combing Natco Lake. Police K9 dogs were used; Hazlet’s ATV units and the Monmouth County Sheriff’s department helicopter combed the woods in that part of Middletown.

One of the articles at the time about Fernandez's disappearance: Middletown Man Still Missing 1 Year Later