One year after searching for her missing son, Omaira Merced learned that 28-year-old Joel Ortiz had been dead for months, but was never told.
She’s now filing a lawsuit against University Hospital and two police departments for failing to notify next of kin. Omaira Merced says her son Joel was found on a street in Newark in September 2024, just two weeks after she had started searching for him.
He died of cardiac arrest at University Hospital, but she didn’t learn of his death until a detective with the Irvington Police Department told her in September 2025…