A Seton Hall student’s remains were found near a New Jersey bike trail 10 years after the student went missing.
John Paul "JP" Fernandez, 22, was a senior when he disappeared on Dec. 13, 2015, around the time of SHU’s final exams. Fernandez was last seen near his home in Middletown around 1:30 a.m. His phone was found later that day on the side of Route 36, near Natco Lake. When Fernandez first disappeared, police said he may have walked off along Henry Hudson Trail.
In Nov. 2024, the Asbury Park Press reported that Middletown Police Department officers and investigators with the prosecutor’s office’s Major Crimes Bureau investigated reports of human remains found near Willow Street in Middletown. The street, which is a dead end, runs parallel to the Henry Hudson Trail.
In a Facebook post made on Nov. 1, 2025, Fernandez’s mother, Ninia Fernandez, confirmed that the human remains found a year prior were her son’s, confirmed via DNA testing on Oct. 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 wrote. “While this brings heartbreaking closure, it also brings peace to finally bring our son home.”
“Out of respect for the privacy of the Fernandez family, the University will not be providing comment. Our thoughts and prayers remain with John Paul and his loved ones,” University Relations wrote in an email to The Setonian.
As previously reported in The Setonian, Fernandez reportedly wrote a “six page suicide letter” where he stated that he “feels inadequate with amazing people.” Fernandez’s mother told FilAm, a Filipino-American website, that her son experienced bullying at Middletown High School in Middletown. He would come home from school “with his shirt torn and spat on.”
Nancy Schaefer, founder of Missing in America, was helping Fernandez’s family find him at the time. She told Patch.com that he also had issues with bullying in middle school and at SHU. Fernandez was set to graduate from the Stillman School of Business in May 2016. He was an accounting major and a commuter.
Fernandez’s mother told Patch.com, at the time, that her son was having “an identity crisis.” She also told FilAm that her son “left everything behind” and would “end his life in a high place somewhere in the woods.” Police didn’t find anything else but his phone in a zip-loc bag and two letters during their search.
Fernandez was the third of four children. He was described as a “very bright” individual who loved to read manga comic books.
“JP had a gentle and giving heart,” his mother wrote in a Facebook post. “He always stepped up when needed. He was quirky, funny, and full of life—the kind of person who could make anyone laugh with his animated stories and contagious energy. That was who he was: dependable, kind, and never afraid to be himself.”
SHU has various resources that students can contact for support, like Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), UWill telehealth platform, and the Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
Dominique Mercadante is the Editor-in-Chief of The Setonian. She can be reached at dominique.mercadante@student.shu.edu.
