Adam Zalouk Pleads Guilty to Threatening Missing Rutgers Student, Family Opposes Diversion

Adam Zalouk, 33, of Staten Island pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan in Toms River to making a terrorist threat against 22-year-old Rutgers senior Mortimer Wortman, who has been missing since Nov. 21, 2025. Prosecutors accepted Zalouk into the court’s pretrial intervention program, and weapons and criminal mischief charges were dismissed as part of the disposition.

At the March 2 hearing Zalouk admitted threatening Wortman with a knife during an incident in Point Pleasant Beach on July 27, a factual admission the court record says put Wortman in immediate fear of death. Under the PTI terms reported at the hearing, if Zalouk complies with program conditions and stays out of legal trouble for three years he will not have a criminal conviction arising from the plea.

Wortman’s family told Judge Ryan they strongly oppose the diversion. Wortman’s stepfather, identified only in court records, told the judge, "I truly believe Adam knows where my son is at," and added, "He's been stalking him, calling the house, threatening to kill him." The family’s objections came despite a prosecutor’s statement that, before Wortman disappeared, Wortman had told the prosecutor’s office he agreed to Zalouk’s acceptance into PTI or a downgrade to a disorderly persons charge and did not want a no-contact order issued.

The court treated the threat plea under the state’s Prevention of Domestic Violence Act, a context that required the judge to ask whether Zalouk and Wortman had been in a dating relationship. When Judge Ryan posed that question Zalouk responded, "It was a little complicated." Reporting from friends and acquaintances shows the relationship status remains disputed: some accounts describe Zalouk as a onetime romantic partner while close friends Abi Bischoff and Nick Moccio have said they were not romantically involved.

Several details about Wortman’s disappearance and the days around it have amplified the family’s alarm. Surveillance footage has been reported showing Wortman getting into a car with Zalouk in the Regional Day School parking lot on Nov. 21, a lot described as roughly four miles from Rutgers in Jackson, and Wortman’s car was found in that lot the next day. Friends say Zalouk reported Wortman missing about 18 hours after he was last seen, and Wortman’s mother, Johanna Reyes, said a week before the disappearance her husband saw Zalouk’s car near the family home; the family did not alert police until after Wortman vanished.

Friends and search volunteers have pressed for answers. Nick Moccio, who has devoted an Instagram account to finding Wortman, told reporters, "The only person that could tell us where he is Adam and he’s still free and he’s still not telling the truth." Law enforcement has not filed any charges against Zalouk in connection with Wortman’s disappearance.

The plea resolves the terroristic-threat allegation from the July incident but leaves open the larger missing-person investigation and questions the family raised in court. Prosecutors’ acceptance of PTI ensures no immediate jail time for Zalouk, while Wortman’s family and friends continue to push for clarity about the Nov. 21 timeline and whether investigators will pursue further charges.