Emilio Acosta-Gutierrez left his home in the early morning hours of Dec. 18, 2025
NEED TO KNOW
- A man who had been missing for four months was found dead in a New Jersey river on Friday, April 17
- His family previously said they feared the young man was experiencing a mental health crisis when he vanished in the middle of the night
- An investigation into the case is ongoing
A man who vanished after leaving his family’s home four months ago has been found dead in a New Jersey river.
This week, officials announced that the body of Emilio Acosta-Gutierrez was found in the Hackensack River after he disappeared on Dec. 18, 2025, News 12, NBC affiliate WNBC and NJ.com reported.
Early that winter morning, around 1:30 a.m. local time, the young man’s parents woke up to find Acosta-Gutierrez going through their closet and grabbing two backpacks before fleeing their house in Weehawken, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).
Acosta-Gutierrez’s concerned father drove around the area but he wasn’t able to locate him. There was no sign of the missing man — who was aged 20 when he disappeared and turned 21 during the period he was missing — until his body was located in the river, according to the reports…