#Missing NJ man with learning disability found dead in parking lot

A young New Jersey man who disappeared ahead of plans to meet his mother was found dead inside a car parked at a supermarket, authorities and an attorney for the man’s family said.

The body of 29-year-old Mauri Mendez, of Lakewood, was found late Saturday inside a tan 2000 Chevy Blazer in the parking lot of a ShopRite in Wall Township. His death remains under investigation but it does not appear to be suspicious, a spokesperson for Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office said.

“At this time, the death does not appear to be suspicious,” Chris Swendeman said in a statement. “This investigation is ongoing and cause and manner of death are pending the medical examiner’s post mortem examination.”

Swendeman declined to indicate whether any obvious signs of trauma were found on Mendez’s body.

An attorney for Mendez’s family, Jef Henninger, said Mendez had texted his mother on Aug. 27 to say that he would meet her at his sister’s house in Toms River, but he never showed up and his cellphone was later turned off.

“He just left for the day, to do every day normal stuff, and the plan was to pick up his mother,” Henninger said Tuesday, adding that she was babysitting for Mendez’s sister at the time. “He texted her to confirm that and then after that, nobody heard from him.”

Henninger also said that Mendez had “special needs” but declined to elaborate.

Police in Wall Township found then found the 29-year-old dead inside the SUV after getting a call on an unrelated matter.

The plates of the abandoned vehicle matched those of the car in which Mendez was last seen in Lakewood, the prosecutor’s office said.

The car belongs to his mother’s boyfriend but Mendez had been borrowing the vehicle while his own was being worked on, NJ.com reports.

Mendez’s sister, meanwhile, told the outlet that her brother had a learning disability.

“He’s 29 but his mind is like a 15-year-old,” Sabrina Loehwing told NJ.com. “He’s vulnerable. He’s very trusting in people. He’s just a loving person. He thinks everyone he meets is his friend. I don’t know if he was talking to someone and that person wasn’t a good person. Anything is possible.”

Mendez’s mother had found a note in her Bible on Friday indicating that her son wanted to move to Florida or Ecuador, where he has relatives. He wanted to leave in late September, but relatives don’t think he intended to set out for either location in late August, NJ.com reports.

Mendez got a phone call early on Aug. 27 that lasted two to three minutes, but the call was traced back to a number that appears to be a prepaid cellphone, NJ.com reports.

“It’s a really strange circumstance,” Henninger said of Mendez’s death. “That someone in a parked car, who is otherwise healthy, is found deceased with no obvious indication as to what happened.”