A 35-year-old man reported missing last week from a south metro motel has yet to be found despite private search efforts, authorities said Sunday.
A friend reported Joseph M. Hernandez missing on Monday from a nearby motel, according to a Facebook notice posted Friday by the city of Mendota Heights.
Even though police acknowledge that online postings are calling Hernandez a homicide victim, "all we have is a missing person," Police Sgt. Tanner Spicer told the Star Tribune. "That's friends and family saying" somebody killed him, the sergeant added.
"Potential evidence" in Hernandez's disappearance prompted the Dakota County Sheriff's Office to receive a search warrant, the Facebook posting continued. That search, of the Mendota Heights Motel on Hwy. 13, turned up nothing to indicated foul play in connection with Hernandez's fate, Spicer said.
Friends and family were out again Saturday looking for Hernandez, but made no progress in determining his whereabouts, according to the sergeant.
Hernandez is described as Hispanic, 5 feet 6 inches tall, 180 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Spicer said he didn't know Hernandez's current city of residence, but "he's been known to frequent the West Side" of St. Paul.
Anyone with information about his disappearance is urged to call the Mendota Heights Police Department at 651-452-1366 or the Dakota County Sheriff's Office at 651-438-4700 or 911.
Paul Walsh
