Skeletal remains found last year by the Henry Hudson Bike Trail in New Jersey’s Monmouth County have been identified as a man missing since 2015.
Ninia Fernandez confirmed the remains were identified as John Paul Fernandez, her son who went missing from Middletown in December 2015 when he was 22 years old.
“After 3,258 days of searching and praying, our beloved son John Paul Fernandez, who had been missing since December 13, 2015, was found on November 14, 2024 — after nearly nine long years,” the mother wrote on Facebook. “His identity was confirmed through DNA testing on October 14, 2025.”
“There are no words to describe the pain and the countless tears we have cried for him — every single day, for every year he was gone,” she said. “While this brings heartbreaking closure, it also brings peace to finally bring our son home.”
Christopher Swendeman, a spokesman for the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, told the Asbury Park Press the remains were found Nov. 4, 2024 on a dead-end, residential street that runs parallel to the bike trail.
He said there was no indication of any suspicious circumstances when the remains were found.
Fernandez’s mother wrote that private services will be held for family and close friends, but “a celebration of life will follow at a later date, where all who wish to honor his memory will be welcome.”
