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The last person to see missing Rutgers student Morty Wortman before he disappeared was at the Ocean County Courthouse on Monday for a hearing.
But Adam Zalouk’s appearance was not related to Wortman’s disappearance.
Zalouk was scheduled to stand before a judge and answer to charges that back in July, he allegedly threatened Wortman with a knife, rammed the rear of Wortman’s car and vandalized it.
However, the hearing in Toms River was postponed by Judge Kenneth Palmer without explanation.
It was disappointing to the relatives of Wortman, who have been searching the woods of Jackson Township for Wortman for 17 days.
The 22-year-old, whose family lives in Jackson, was last seen in surveillance video getting in a car with Adam Zalouk at a parking lot late at night on Nov. 21.
That parking lot is part of the Regional Day School and is next to a large area of woods. Wortman’s brother, Ivan Marks, spoke outside the courthouse, saying he believes Zalouk is connected to the disappearance.
“Absolutely 100%. We are all convinced that he had something to do with it. Our family wants an arrest. We want him to be arrested, and this is another day he is walking away free,” said Marks.
Wortman’s mother, Johanna Reyes, has been in the woods every day looking for her son.
“If anybody knows anything, please help us find him, anything,” said Reyes.
She has never met Zalouk and says she believes he was stalking her son.
“I just know that he was hanging around the house. That’s all I know," she said.
The New Jersey State Police led a search on Saturday of a 1,200-acre area of woods in Jackson, but did not find any sign of Wortman.
The Ocean County Prosecutor's Office is investigating.
Zalouk did not speak with the media nor the Wortman family before leaving the Ocean County Courthouse.