A Bedminster man missing since June has been found "alive and safe" in a park in New York City.

Bedminster Police Lt. Craig Meyer says Roger Temple, 44, was located last night in a park near the George Washington Bridge after a Port Authority police officer recognized Temple's picture.t

Friend Phyllis Palmeri Sacchi told the Star Ledger that Temple was found disheveled and in poor physical and mental condition. She was also able to shed some light about why he ran away. "Roger was hurt by seeing so many colleagues being laid off (in the pharmaceutical field) in large numbers and their families uprooted," Sacchi said. "The burden of never knowing whether or not you were next was always a monkey on his back."

Nixle message from Bedminster Police
Nixle message from Bedminster Police (Bedminster Police)
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Roger Temple
Roger Temple (NJ State Police)
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Meyer said his family was notified and Temple will be reunited with his family soon. Meyer was grateful for the support and effort from the community and law enforcement in the seven week search for Temple, who disappeared in June.

"A lot of people put a lot of effort" into finding Temple said Meyer, who was especially thankful for the work of the New Jersey State Police Missing Persons Unit and Port Authority police.  Meyer said his department was very pleased that this missing person case came to a happy ending.

The Missing Roger Temple Facebook page posted that Temple was "exhausted but he is safe and will need to rest and has been hospitalized."

It was a week ago that Temple was arrested and released for shoplifting a bag of peanuts in Manhattan. He was picked up, fingerprinted, processed and released before NYPD was aware that he was missing. It offered the first indication that Temple was still alive.

Temple was last seen on June 19 at his Bedminster home. He traveled the next day on public transportation to Hudson County and hasn’t been seen since. Police  were able to trace his cell phone to Fort Lee in Bergen County before the phone’s signal went dead. Friends and relatives had offered a $2,000 reward to help locate Temple.

 

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