Union County Teacher Brian Gooney Now Missing 2 Weeks

UNION COUNTY — Brian Gooney, a professional in the Linden Public Schools who assisted with special education students, has been missing for two weeks as of Tuesday.

[UPDATE: Gooney's body has been found; see update here.]

Despite a recent rally at school on Friday to bring him home, as well as media attention, the last clues from his disappearance are two weeks old. Gooney's missing persons file, added on March 15 to NamUs.gov (the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System), shows a still from a video of Gooney walking through the parking garage of his Rahway apartment complex wearing a printed long-sleeved shirt, dark pants, and a facemask on the night of Tuesday, March 9.

The file says, "Employer (school principal) advised that he has not responded to school for 3 days and has not logged into his computer after requesting to work from home on 3/9/2021. Last seen via surveillance camera on 03/09/2021 at his apartment complex. Subject left his car behind, cell phone turned off, and did not mention going anywhere to anyone."

Gooney, 55, moved to the five-year-old apartment complex — one of Rahway's newly developed complexes along the Rahway River — in January and was excited about it, a relative told the media last week. Downtown Rahway has been revitalized in the last few years.

Rally held Friday

On Friday, the Linden Public School District held a rally to bring awareness to the situation and ask anyone who's seen Gooney to contact police.

More than 100 members of the school community attended the rally.

“The Linden family is strong,” Superintendent Dr. Marnie Hazelton told the crowd on Friday. “We want the whole TriState Area to know that he is part of the Linden family. Thanks for coming out to show your love and support for Brian.”

Gooney is a creative teacher who often wears costumes for special events, said those who know him.

Eloy Delgado, president of the Linden Education Association, said, “We want to do everything in our power to spread the word so that someone, anyone who has seen anything or has any information will come forward."

He added, "Brian is a beloved member of our school community who is adored by colleagues, students, and yes, family. Help us find our colleague Brian and bring him home to his family and his community.”

Gooney is single and has siblings and other relatives who have spoken out in hopes of finding more information.

Before joining the staff at Soehl Middle School two years ago, Gooney had been a paraprofessional at School No. 2 and before that was a substitute teacher. Before that, he was a career journalist in New Jersey.

Gooney's sister Bernadette and brother Patrick spoke briefly at the rally to say thank you to those who gathered and to the Rahway and Linden police departments for continuing to search for Gooney.

“We want to thank everyone for pitching in to help us,” said Karen Gooney, Brian’s sister-in-law, who is a secretary at Linden’s School No. 1. “And to my Linden Public Schools family, I can’t thank you enough. I am so proud to work for Linden Public Schools. And so is Brian.”

The Linden public schools went remote three days after Gooney's disappearance due to covid cases, after having started hybrid learning just a month ago. Gooney had good-naturedly Tweeted about hybrid learning last month, making references to comic books, one of his interests.

"Lots of prayers," commented a friend on Facebook. "He loves his job and those kids."

Authorities have asked anyone with information to call either the Rahway Police Department at 732-827-2200 or Det. Tilton at 732-827-2146.

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