NJ family demanding answers over Paterson man's disappearance

NEW JERSEY - The family of 41-year-old Felix de Jesus is demanding answers after he went missing more than three months ago after a run-in with Paterson Police.

According to Crystal Garcia, on February 2, De Jesus, who is her brother-in-law, brought his mother to the hospital that day and went back to her home where he was staying before calling one of his brothers and saying he was having a bite to eat. They never heard from him again. 

"I can't even believe we are going through what we are going through," Garcia said.

The family says they went searching for De Jesus and found out he left home that night and walked to a store in the neighborhood. They say the owner of the store told them De Jesus was intoxicated and that he saw De Jesus with Paterson police officers.

Further searching by De Jesus' family found surveillance video from a nearby seafood restaurant showing that De Jesus allegedly had at least three interactions with police before they arrested him.

The family's attorney, Jeffrey Patti, says that there is an open investigation with the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office into De Jesus's disappearance, but that he doesn't know what they are investigating.

"They're slow-walking what they're calling an internal affairs investigation," Patti said.

FOX 5 NY reached out to the County Prosecutor's Office and was directed to Haledon police, who are handling the missing person report because De Jesus was a Haledon resident. 

Investigators did confirm De Jesus did interact with Paterson police and say he was last seen in Paterson near Westside Park not far from the area where the surveillance video came from.