For nearly 100 days, Mortimer “Morty” Mekhai Wortman has been missing from Jackson Township, New Jersey.
And for nearly every one of those days, Johanna Reyes has been out searching for her 22-year-old son. “I just need to be out there,” she told Dateline.
Johanna calls her son Mekhai. “But once he got a little older and went to school, all his friends called him Morty,” she said. That nickname is now front and center in the search effort, with hashtags and social media accounts calling to “Bring Morty Home.”
Morty is Johanna’s middle child. His brother and he dote on their little sister. “He was her favorite person in the whole wide world,” Johanna said. “I keep telling her, ‘Khai’s going to come home soon.’”
Morty’s disappearance has left a huge hole in the home.
“He’s been an old soul since he was little,” she said. “Always polite, kind. Very talkative.”
“Gentle giant. Not a mean bone in him,” she said. “He gave me hugs and kisses, ‘I love you’ — every day.”
At the time of his disappearance, Morty was a senior at Rutgers University, studying to be a landscape architect and commuting from home. “That was his passion. Like, he loved plants,” Johanna said.
Morty was just a few days away from Thanksgiving break when the unthinkable happened: he vanished.
“The last time I actually saw him was that Tuesday,” Johanna remembered. On Tuesday, November 18, Morty met his mom at work. They went to eat, dropped off his iPhone to get fixed, and headed home. After spending some time together, Morty fell asleep on Johanna’s bed for a little bit. “He just got up and was like, ‘Mom, I’ll be back. I’m going to my friend’s house,’ and he left,” Johanna said. “Which is common. Like, he’s 22 years old.”
Mother and son were in touch via text over the next few days. Morty was using his iPad until he got his phone back. “He always stays at a friend’s house, especially by the school, so he’s not driving back and forth,” Johanna said. While Morty was at the friend’s house, Johanna picked up his phone which had been repaired.
She was able to speak with Morty, who was still using his iPad, on Thursday while he was at a gas station. “Nothing seemed weird,” she said.
He told her he’d come by that day to pick up his phone. “He was supposed to come home, and he didn’t.”
The next morning, Friday, November 21, Johanna grew concerned that he still hadn’t come home. “I called him, he didn’t pick up. So I text him like, ‘Hello, where are you?’” Johanna recalled. He replied. “He said, ‘Hi, Mom. I’m OK.’ Um, ‘I’ll be home to pick up my phone today.’”
That message, sent at 10:43 a.m. on November 21, was the last message Johanna received from her son. She was at work. When she got home, he wasn’t there. “I called, he didn’t pick up. I text and I was like, ‘Call me,’” Johanna said. She continued to call Morty’s iPad into Saturday morning, but there was no response.
Then there was a knock on the door. It was officers from the Jackson Township Police Department. And they had a question: Was Morty home? “And I was like, ‘No.’ And they said, ‘Well, um, his -- we found his car parked at the Regional Day School and a friend reported him missing,’” Johanna said. “And I was like, ‘What do you mean?’” Johanna told Dateline what the officer said next. “He said, ‘A friend said that they got into an argument — a heated argument — and Mekhai walked off into the woods, said he was walking home.’ So they — they were asking me if he made it home.”
Johanna says she quickly arranged childcare for her daughter and went down to the parking lot where Morty’s car had been located. The school is adjacent to the Collier Mills Wildlife Management Area, which is a large nature preserve.
“That night we were searching,” Johanna said. “The very next day, my whole family got together. It had to be at least 20 of us.” And they were relentless. “We were out there for hours and hours and hours and yelling his name out and just calling for him.”
Their efforts continued as the days went on. “My family members, they took off the whole week. Like, we were out there every day, all the way till nighttime. We were out there for over 12 hours, just searching and searching,” she said. In the three months since, Johanna has continued to search for her son. She is dedicated to looking for him — rain or shine. “I’ve been out there. I have ripped coats, I have — my pants have gotten ripped. I lost my hat a million times,” she said. “I’ve gotten stuck out there.”
“I’m still going out to search. Do I believe he is in there? No. Is that all we got? Yes. Will I continue to search what we have? Yes. Because that’s all I have,” Johanna said.
Johanna says she gave the police Morty’s phone, but his iPad is missing. “I assume it’s still on him,” she said. “It’s nowhere to be found.” She thinks his wallet and keys must be with him, too. “I feel like he’s not in those woods for the simple fact that we haven’t found anything.”
Johanna believes foul play is involved in her son’s disappearance.
“Something happened to him. He would never do this. I talk to him every day,” she said. “This has been absolute zero communication.”
Dateline contacted the Jackson Township Police Department for an update on the investigation into Morty’s disappearance. Chief Matthew Kunz replied that the “matter remains as an open investigation,” and directed us to contact the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office for a public statement. A records request was denied citing the ongoing nature of the investigation.
Via email, a prosecutor from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office told Dateline they have been “actively investigating the disappearance of 22-year-old Mortimer ‘Morty’ Wortman since he went missing on November 21, 2025,” and that their efforts have been in coordination with the Jackson Police Department, New Jersey State Police, and Ocean County Sheriff’s Office. They confirmed Morty was last seen near the Regional Day School and Collier Mills Wildlife Management Area in Jackson Township and detailed the search efforts. “Law enforcement has utilized multiple resources to search for Wortman including underwater recovery efforts, K9s, and drones,” they wrote.
The prosecutor’s office also stated that “details about more specific investigative efforts cannot be released at this time. This investigation is active and ongoing.” No suspects or persons of interest have been named in Morty’s disappearance.
Despite the pain she feels not knowing where her son is, Johanna is being patient. “I know it’s an ongoing investigation,” she said. “And I have to trust — trust the process.”
According to Johanna, the person who reported Morty missing in November had been a friend of her son. She says that in July 2025, there was an incident between the two. “[Morty] said that he was with a friend at Point Pleasant in public and, um, they got into an argument, but he would not tell me why,” Johanna said. Days after that conversation, Johanna says, she got a text from Morty. “He said, ‘Mom, they arrested him.’”
Dateline requested the police records for the incident from the Point Pleasant Police Department but was denied as the case has been transferred to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office. The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office also denied our request for the records.
The man who Johanna says was involved in the July incident was indicted on five charges, including possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, terroristic threats, and criminal mischief in relation to an incident on July 26, 2025. At his arraignment in December, he pleaded not guilty to the charges. Dateline reached out to his attorney’s office multiple times by phone and email but did not hear back. On March 2, 2026, the case was disposed, after the man agreed to a plea deal that dropped two of the charges and allowed him to avoid jail time by entering PTI — New Jersey’s Pretrial Intervention program for defendants who are generally first-time offenders. He has not been named a person of interest or suspect in Morty’s disappearance.
In December, Rutgers University shared a post on their Facebook page, “Our thoughts are with Rutgers–New Brunswick student Mortimer 'Morty' Wortman and his loved ones during this difficult time. We are seeking any and all information that could help locate Morty.” The university stated that they are also working closely with the authorities investigating the disappearance. They shared another post asking for information just last week.
The family has a website called “Bring Morty Home,” dedicated to sharing information about the case and photos of Morty. They’ve also created Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook pages for the same reason. They’re hoping to keep attention on his story. “We need to find him and we will find him,” Johanna said.
In January, Jackson Township Mayor Jennifer Kuhn personally put up a $1,000 reward for someone who provides information that leads to finding Morty. According to Township Council President Mordy Burnstein, the mayor has gone out to help search for Morty and is ensuring no stone is left unturned in the search for him. The nonprofit CUE Center for Missing Persons was recently brought on to help in Morty’s case. The organization has worked on multiple cases Dateline has covered, including the disappearance of Danielle Lopez, whose story was featured in season 4 of the Dateline: Missing in America podcast. They have launched a new campaign to raise awareness in Morty’s case. In a press release this week, CUE announced that the total amount of the reward for information that leads to Morty’s location is now up to $10,000. “The reward can only be obtained by providing the direct location or information leading to the direct location of missing person Mortimer 'Mekhai' Wortman. No questions asked and tipsters can call or submit information online and can remain anonymous,” the press release reads.
“If anybody — anybody knows anything, call the number. Stay anonymous. Somebody has to know something,” Johanna stressed. “Just come forward. Come forward.”
There is a vigil planned to “Shine a Light for Morty” at 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 1, at the Rutgers University-New Brunswick campus on Morell Street next to the College Ave Student Center.
According to Johanna, Morty is 5’10” and 180 lbs., with brown hair and eyes.
She says he has tattoos on his right arm and a star on his thigh, and was last seen wearing a burgundy hoodie with a black T-shirt and dark-colored pants.
If you have information on this case, please contact the Jackson Township Police Department at 732-928-1111 and press “0” to speak with a dispatcher. You can also email information to Morty’s loved ones at bringmortyhome@gmail.com.
Additionally, the CUE Center has a 24-Hour tip line at 910-232-1687 and you can submit an anonymous tip on their website.
If you have a story to share with Dateline, please submit it here.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include information about the disposition of the charges stemming from the July 2025 incident and to note that our records request with the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office was denied.
