Crime

Family Offers $10K Reward for Missing Remains to Help Solve Mystery of Ariz. Man's Death

Najib "Jubi" Monsif, a 20-year-old man with autism, was last seen Sept. 23 before his remains were recovered, with body parts missing, in a canal in December

Published on March 25, 2022 03:57 PM

An Arizona family desperately hopes an appeal to the public may help unearth answers about the mysterious death of a 20-year-old whose remains — missing several body parts — were found in a canal more than two months after he vanished.

Scottsdale police say there's no indication of foul play in the open case, but the family of Najib "Jubi" Monsif refuses to accept that.

"I need to find out what happened to my son," said his father, Najib Monsif Sr., reports AZFamily.com.

Jubi, an adult with autism who functioned at the level of an 8-year-old, was last seen at his Scottsdale home on Sept. 23, according to police.

His decomposing skeletal remains were found Dec. 7 by a worker at a canal pump station about 11 miles from his family's home. They were positively identified as Jubi's through a DNA match, police said at a Dec. 14 news conference.

The Maricopa County Medical Examiner concluded in an autopsy report released in February that the cause of death was undetermined, reports FOX 10 Phoenix. But Jubi's lower left arm, hand and skull all were missing from his body.

The autopsy raised the possibility of an "accidental drowning death," according to the outlet, but the medical examiner added, "however, as the remains are partial, and the head is not with the remains, the possibility of head or other trauma (from accident or assault) cannot be definitively excluded on the basis of forensic pathological or anthropological analyses alone."

FOX 10 reports the Salt-Gila Pumping Plant includes a "trash rake" that deploys metal teeth used to scoop debris from the bottom of the canal. It was that machine which pulled up Jubi's remains.

"We are heartbroken, this is not the outcome we were hoping for," Scottsdale police spokesperson Aaron Bolin told reporters at the Dec. 14 news conference.

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Police said the young man told a family member the day before he went missing that he'd "never see them again." He had been depressed about his parent's separation and divorce at the time, and when his mother asked what that statement meant, he said never mind. But he often said things he didn't mean, family members said, according to AZFamily.

Authorities surmised he could have made his way into the canal by wriggling through two fence gates chained together on the canal property.

But his father said, "Najib doesn't have the strength and Najib doesn't touch stuff," reports FOX 10.

In a statement posted to Facebook on his son's Dec. 22 birthday, Monsif Sr. noted that police dogs who were tracking his son's scent in a direction away from the canal had lost the scent, and that surveillance footage from that same area had not documented any sighting of his son.

"The second day of Jubi's disappearance we asked police for divers to go into the canal to search just in case Jubi's body was there," he wrote. "The answer was that the divers can't see in this water and if the body is in the water it will float in two to three days. They also said his body would hit the first grate within 3-5 days. One week after Jubi went missing a helicopter flew over the canal and they assured us nobody is in the canal because they would be able to see straight through."

He completed his statement: "Our conclusion thus far is: Jubi was picked up near my house and somebody put his body in the canal over a railing, tied with weight. These remains could have been put in the canal at any location at any time in the past 3 months. There is no evidence of 'foul pay' because there is nothing left to examine."

Hoping to spark further investigation, Jubi's father has offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to a suspect in the disappearance and death, and another $10,000 reward for finding Jubi's missing skull.

"Every night is a nightmare," Monsif Sr. said, reports FOX 10. "I go work just to not think about this situation and the minute I get off work, I think about Jubi's remains."

On Jubi's birthday, his father said his family would continue to "celebrate his life by remembering his beautiful smile, his kind soul, his pure spirit and his love for his family and friends."

On March 19, in a separate statement on the family's Finding Najib (Jubi) Monsif Facebook page, his father wrote: "The mystery surrounding Jubi's disappearance from our home on September 23, 2021, remains the same today as it was back then. We received the toxicology report which indicated the cause of Jubi's passing as 'undetermined.' Jubi's skull and left arm are still missing and we believe that his missing remains are most likely in one of the canal branches from the Mesa pumping station."

"We ask you, my friends, to please help us spread the word throughout social media. Finding his skull is essential in determining whether there is evidence of foul play as we strongly believe that someone is responsible for what happened to our son."