'If it's my last breath, I want to know what happened.' Kearny police reopen 1974 cold case
Nicholas Maschuci disappeared on Sept. 18, 1974, after leaving his family's home on Hamilton Avenue in Kearny. According to his daughter, he was headed to a business meeting and planned to meet his son later that evening at the Arlington Diner.
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More than 50 years after a Kearny man vanished without a trace, local police are taking another look at the case.
Nicholas Maschuci disappeared on Sept. 18, 1974, after leaving his family's home on Hamilton Avenue in Kearny. According to his daughter, he was headed to a business meeting and planned to meet his son later that evening at the Arlington Diner.
"He said, 'Make sure Jojo meets me at the diner at 11 p.m. Don't forget to tell him that,'" she said. "Then he kissed me three times and left. That was the last time I saw him."
Maschuci's daughter said her brother called her in a panic around 2 a.m. because their father had never shown up for the scheduled meeting.
"He was screaming and yelling and saying we had to call somebody," she said.
Several days later, the family reported him missing.
"Years ago, it was 48 hours before you could actually report someone missing," she said. "And then nothing. Just nothing."
She said Maschuci's car was found several weeks later in New York City, Her brother was a police officer in Kearny. Still, the case went cold.
For decades, Maschuci's daughter said she struggled with the uncertainty surrounding her father's disappearance, pushing investigators to keep going.
"Your mind goes on and on," she said. "It just torments you."
However, now that the case is active again, she hopes someone may finally come forward with information.
"Maybe somebody remembers something," she said. "Maybe their grandparents or parents told them something. If anybody could give us just a little bit of information, that would be awesome."
In the meantime, Maschuci's daughter has become an advocate for federal legislation that would provide local police departments with additional resources to investigate missing persons cases and establish standards for how those investigations are handled.
She said she's written over 100 letters to elected officials but has never received a response.
"If it's my last breath, I want to know what happened," she said
Anyone with information about the disappearance of Nicholas Maschuci is urged to contact the Kearny Police Department.
