A body pulled from the Passaic River last week has been identified as a 21-year-old Newark man who’d been reported missing in December, police in Montville, N.J. said Monday.
The Morris County Prosecutor’s Office and Morris County Medical Examiner’s Office said the body was that of Timothy Robinson. He was last seen leaving Essex County Hospital Center in Cedar Grove at around 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 17, New Jersey State Police said in January.
Robinson’s cause of death remained pending on Tuesday, but was “not suspected to be criminal,” the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement. “Scans of the body were negative for projectiles or foreign objects.”
Two fishermen first spotted the body in the Passaic River near Route 46 on March 23 and notified police, who recovered the remains and appealed to the public for help identifying him. Robinson was not carrying identification when he went missing, but the body bore two unique tattoos, which police circulated in an attempt to get more information.
Simultaneously, New Jersey State Police were seeking the public’s help in finding the “developmentally delayed” Robinson, noting he was “unaware he is missing and is not a danger to himself or others.”
A host of agencies collaborated on the investigation to identify the body. Prosecutor Robert Carroll thanked “the investigators and the members of the [Morris County Medical Examiner’s Office] for their assistance on this investigation, and for bringing closure to Robinson’s loved ones,” the statement said.
