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Friends, family of missing Queens law student canvass for information
By
Isidoro Rodriguez
Published Jan 30, 2023
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Isidoro Rodriguez
By
Isidoro Rodriguez
Published Jan 30, 2023
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The family of a CUNY law student who has been missing for weeks is asking the public for clues about his disappearance.
Jordan Taylor, 29, has been missing since Jan. 6, his brother Alton Taylor, said. On Sunday, Alton Taylor organized a group of about a dozen friends and volunteers to walk in the areas where his brother was last seen.
They walked from near the Port Authority Bus Terminal to Battery Park City, handing out flyers and looking for anyone who might have seen him before he disappeared.
“We hope that we find him and in one piece and that we’ll be able to return to some sense of normalcy when that happens,” Alton Taylor said.
According to Alton Taylor, the last time he saw his brother was about 5:30 a.m. on Jan. 6, when Alton Taylor left their shared apartment in Queens for work. The family then tracked Jordan Taylor’s cell phone, and canvassed local businesses for video footage, and learned that he had gone to the Hustle Barbershop between 4 and 5 p.m. that afternoon.
Rafael Padilla, who works at the barbershop, told Gothamist that while he did come in for a haircut, he left suddenly, before Padilla could finish.
Alton Taylor said next, phone records showed his brother around the Port Authority Bus Terminal between 9 p.m. and midnight.
Alton Taylor said his brother later walked past the nearby QNYC nightclub. Jordan Taylor’s phone was discovered near the club at around 1:30 a.m., Alton Taylor said. That fact initially drew special attention to the case, because one of two men who died under suspicious circumstances last summer was last seen at the same club. However, Alton Taylor said there is no evidence that his brother ever went inside the club.
Detectives from the NYPD Missing Persons Unit recently sent Taylor’s family footage of Jordan Taylor walking past Goldman Sachs in Battery Park at about 2:30 a.m. Jan. 7.
NYPD confirmed the details of Taylor’s disappearance, but did not respond to requests for updates Monday.
Jordan Taylor’s wallet was discovered in that area around 9:30 a.m., with both cash and credit cards still inside, Alton Taylor said.
That footage of Taylor near Goldman Sachs was encouraging to his friends.
“It makes me believe that he’s alive and out there,” said Jesse Ginsberg, Jordan’s former college roommate. “It’s been a horrendous few weeks, and for a while I wasn’t sure about that.”
Alton Taylor said that, before disappearing, Jordan was stressed about upcoming exams, but otherwise behaving normally.
A native of Nyack, New York, Jordan is known for his work as a local social justice activist. His friends and LinkedIn page say that he was a member of the Hudson Valley Chapter of Black Lives Matter, organized for the Antonio Delgado for Congress campaign in the 2018 midterm elections, and later worked as a field organizer for the Working Families Party in 2022.
Anyone with information about Jordan Taylor is encouraged to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).
Tagged
nypd
missing man
queens
Isidoro Rodriguez
Isidoro Rodriguez is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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