Brandon Gomes, 24, was last seen by his mother on October 1, 2023. A few days later he sent a friend a text saying he wanted to end his life in nature, a message his family described as completely out of character. Police were contacted after the friend could not reach him, and officers visited the family home on October 6.

Gomes, a math and physics major at Rutgers University who had been working on a startup and had recently returned from a family vacation in Europe, drove his mother’s car from Summit, New Jersey, to Albuquerque, New Mexico. He checked into a Holiday Inn on October 3 and checked out on October 6, leaving the vehicle at the hotel. The final trace of his movements is a cell phone ping in the San Ysidro area of Sandoval County, northwest of Albuquerque, after which his phone went inactive.

Search efforts have involved the Summit Police Department, Albuquerque Police Department and the Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office; his family also hired private investigators and used helicopter surveillance. The remote San Pedro Parks Wilderness was mentioned as a possible destination, but without a located vehicle or further sightings, questions remain about what happened to him after that final ping.

If anyone saw Brandon, his car, or has information about his movements in early October 2023 in New Mexico or New Jersey, please come forward.