KEW GARDENS, Queens (PIX11) — The family of missing CUNY law student Jordan Taylor was asking for the public’s help in finding him, after his phone was discovered on a street in Hell’s Kitchen early on Jan. 7.
“Someone found the phone around 46th or 47th Street and handed it to police,” Taylor’s brother, Al, told PIX11 News.
The family is concerned that Jordan Taylor’s wallet was found downtown on West Street, not far from the Goldman Sachs building, although his cash and credit cards remained intact in the wallet, according to Taylor’s brother.
“My brother was going to CUNY law school,” Al Taylor said of his 29-year-old sibling. “This was his first semester. He was a little stressed out about finals. We were trying to be supportive.”
Jordan Taylor had been living in a family apartment in Queens while he attended law school. He had changed his Facebook profile photo shortly before disappearing, wearing a white face mask in the picture.
Surveillance footage from Hustle Barbershop on Hillside Avenue in Richmond Hill showed Taylor leaving the shop shortly after 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 6. He was wearing a black and red argyle sweater, black pants, a black coat and the white face mask.
“He seemed a little off,” barber Rafael Padilla told PIX11 News Monday. “He didn’t let me give him a full haircut. He didn’t wait for the haircut. He said he had to go. I asked the boss what to do. He said, ‘Let him go,’ and he stood outside for like five minutes.”
Al Taylor said his mother was able to track Jordan’s movements by checking his phone records.
Al Taylor said the records indicate Jordan was in the area of the Port Authority Bus Terminal and Times Square between 9 p.m. and midnight on Jan. 6.
“Maybe he was meeting someone,” Al Taylor said.
The brother said Jordan Taylor’s phone was found on the street in Hell’s Kitchen a bit after 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 7.
The location wasn’t far from the Q nightclub, a spot Jordan Taylor has visited before, according to Taylor’s friends.
“They told me that he was getting emails from there,” Al Taylor said, “and we confirmed that by checking his email, his Gmail account.”
The Q has been in the headlines since the spring of 2022, in connection with patrons who were allegedly targeted by a robbery ring as they were leaving. One of the patrons, out-of-towner John Umberger, was given a fatal cocktail of fentanyl and lidocaine, before he was robbed of thousands.
There is no evidence yet that Jordan Taylor visited The Q on Jan. 6.
When Taylor’s mother tried to find her son through his phone on Jan. 7, “We tracked it to 54th Street, which is the police precinct. 306 West 54 Street. The phone was there but he was not.”
Before Jordan Taylor attended CUNY Law School, he graduated with a double major in political science and Black studies from SUNY New Paltz.
At one point, he worked on the congressional campaign for Antonio Delgado, now the lieutenant governor of New York State.
“He was also involved in Black Lives Matter,” Al Taylor said. “He was very involved in community and grassroots efforts.”
A missing persons report has been filed for Jordan Taylor with the 107 Precinct in Queens, since Taylor was living in the borough while attending law school.
