Body Found During Search for Missing NJ Man, Family Says

A body was found during the search for a young man who went missing in Bridgeton, New Jersey, according to family members.

Family members say police found a body while searching for 23-year-old Jonathan Morris Monday afternoon in the Hopewell Township section of Bridgeton. They have not yet confirmed whether the body is that of Morris. State Police also have not confirmed if a body was found.

Morris was reported missing on Friday. He spoke with his mother Stephanie Pernell on Thursday while working as a support professional at a developmental home in Sicklerville, New Jersey. Morris had plans to go to the gym that night.

Pernell said she then got a call from police early Friday morning.

"They told me they found my car in front of the woods with blood in it," she said.

The car, a gray 2012 BMW, had been found running while at the intersection of Barretts Run Archie Platt roads. Morris was nowhere in sight however.

That same BMW had been seen on surveillance video hours earlier Friday around 3 a.m. traveling on Cottage Avenue in Bridgeton with four people inside. Family members say they don't believe Morris, who stood 6-foot-6, was driving the car at that time.

"He sits with his seat all the way back because he's so tall," Morris' father, Jonathan Morris Sr., told NBC10. "And whoever it was, you could see him up, towards the steering wheel. And that's all we had got."

On Sunday, Morris' friends and family gathered in Bridgeton to search the area for clues. Loved ones told NBC10 they found Morris' jacket with blood on it not far from where the car was found near the intersection of Barretts Run and Archie Platt roads.

Morris is a Black man with brown eyes and black hair standing 6-foot-6 and weighing 220 pounds. If you have any information on his whereabouts, please call Sergeant George Auge or New Jersey State Police - Bridgeton at 856-451-0101.