José Carlos “Zeca” Menezes went missing on May 14, 1972 at the age of 18. His date of birth is January 16, 1954. He is now considered a missing senior citizen, even though he went missing as a teenager. Jose was originally from Portugal, but he went missing in the USA. Supposedly, Jose told his mother that he landed a job in California and that he was about to fly to New York. He called his mother after landing in New York, stating that he was waiting for a man to come pick him up, who was going to drive him to California. The name of this man who was supposed to give him a ride may have been Jeff, Jed, Jack, or something similar. His mother did not speak English, so she could not fully understand the name. Jose has not been heard from ever since.

In the 1990’s, Jose’s father went to the USA to try to find Jose to follow up on tips made by Portuguese immigrants. However, the search did not result in any sightings or clues to Jose.

The family is still looking for Jose and has followed up with Portuguese embassy on a regular basis. However, there have not been many tips ever since he disappeared.

Currently, Jose’s niece, Sylvia Menezes, is active in searching for him.

Although the police were alerted in this case, I realized after doing online searches that this case got very little public recognition. It is considered unreported at this time; there is no formal report in the NamUs database.  Therefore, it would be difficult for him to be linked with any unidentified remains, without his DNA or his familial DNA in CODIS.  I am circulating this story in effort to bring it popularity.  I wonder if it somehow fell through the cracks of the system.  If you know anything about Jose, please comment below or send a private message so that I can alert Sylvia and law enforcement. Or, you could call the NY State Police and ask to speak to a detective about this case.  Although, the detectives may not be privy to this case, due to it being unreported.

More info: Jose was a musician who played the drums. His father gave him $1,300 (which was a substantial amount of money at the time) to start a new life in America.  He is a very polite man.