Latest news with #KirkMurad
Independent Singapore
23-05-2025
- Independent Singapore
Ex-SG women's basketball coach confirms death of wife who disappeared in Japan in 2023
SINGAPORE: Kirk Murad, a former Head Coach of the Singapore Women's Basketball Team, confirmed in a recent social media post the death of his wife, Patricia 'Pattie' Wu-Murad, more than two years after she had gone missing while on a hike in Japan. The 60-year-old Ms Wu-Murad was last seen on Apr 10, 2023, at the Mandokoro guesthouse in Totsukawa, a village around 110 kilometres southeast of Osaka, Japan. She had planned to hike an ancient pilgrimage route called the Kumano Kodo trail. Mr Murad coached basketball in Singapore from 2014 to 2017. Ms Wu-Murad also worked in Singapore. Beginning in 2013, she was the manager for International Trade Compliance for United Technologies Aerospace Systems. In an Apr 10 Facebook post, Mr Murad wrote that his wife had moved their family to Singapore twice because of her work: 'And in doing so gave me the gift of coaching at the highest level.' On May 17, he wrote that despite extensive search efforts involving both Japanese and American search and rescue professionals, as well as law enforcement and other officials, 'No trace of Pattie was found in the months following her disappearance.' Last September, however, Ms Wu-Murad's backpack and one of her hiking shoes were found near a stream closer to a different trail from where her family originally believed she had been hiking. Afterwards, the Japanese police searched the area for several days, although nothing more was found. Late last month, a member of the original US search team in Japan returned to the area near where the backpack had been found and discovered more of Ms Wu-Murad's personal items, as well as what they believed to be a femur. After the bone was tested, Ms Wu-Murad's family was told that it was a match through comparison with her daughter's DNA. 'Although we had tried to prepare ourselves for this outcome, the finality of this news is heartbreaking. It offers a measure of closure, but many questions remain unanswered, including the exact circumstances and cause of Pattie's death. We now begin the process of working through international protocols to bring her remains home,' added Mr Murad, who also thanked everyone who aided and supported the family both in the US and Japan. 'Pattie was an incredible woman whose love and friendship touched many lives. While we are devastated, we are also humbled by the global community that rallied to help find her. We will continue to honour her memory with love and gratitude in our hearts. With love and thanks, Kirk, Rachel, Murphy, and Bryce,' he wrote. /TISG Read also: Mizuki Itagaki, 24, found dead after missing for months
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Yahoo
A Connecticut woman went missing 2 years ago on hike in Japan. Her remains have been found
The remains of a Connecticut woman have been found after she went missing while hiking in Japan two years ago, her family confirmed on social media. Family members of 60-year-old Patricia Wu-Murad, or Pattie, as her family called her, found out about the discovery on May 9. Her husband, Kirk Murad, announced the news over the weekend. Wu-Murad went missing on April 10, 2023, and had last been seen at the Mandokoro guesthouse in Totsukawa, about 70 miles southeast of Osaka. Wu-Murad was planning to take the Kumano Kodo trail, an ancient pilgrimage route, according to her husband, Kirk Murad. Some of Wu-Murad's personal items were found over a year later in September 2024, and the search for her included American and Japanese search and rescue experts, U.S. Embassy officials in both Japan and Washington D.C., and the FBI. Then on April 27, 2025, a member of the U.S. search team returned to the area where Wu-Murad's backpack was found, according to Kirk Murad. The team member found multiple personal items of hers, as well as what he thought was a femur. He took the remains to Japanese police, and DNA testing later confirmed the remains were Wu-Murad's, her husband said. 'It offers a measure of closure, but many questions remain unanswered, including the exact circumstances and cause of Pattie's death,' Kirk Murad wrote online. Wu-Murad set out to hike the Kumano Kodo trail in Japan in April 2023, according to a GoFundMe her family started to raise money for the search. People have made the pilgrimage to Kumano for over 1,000 years, according to the local tourism bureau. The Kumano Kodo is a network of routes that stretch across the Kii Peninsula. On Sept. 15, 2024, over a year after Wu-Murad went missing, a fisherman in Totsukawa village found her backpack in a stream, according to her husband. The fisherman found the backpack closer to a different trail than the one she was believed to be hiking on, Kirk Murad wrote. Inside the backpack, the fisherman found a ziploc bag with the woman's email address and her family's home address. He reported the find to the Gojo Police Station and the next day, on Sept. 16, 2024, police retrieved the backpack and stored it. 'The backpack was mostly empty with the exception of the (ziploc) bag and gravel,' her husband wrote. Police later found a shoe in a stream northeast of the guesthouse where she was last seen. Over the next few days, more items were found and family members were able to confirm they belonged to Wu-Murad, Kirk Murad said. 'This gave us hope that Pattie would finally be found,' Murad shared in October. 'However, since then, no more clues have surfaced, and we're back to being frustrated. We know this has been difficult for many of you, as Pattie touched so many lives.' Multiple Facebook groups have been made to support the search for Wu-Murad, including Help Find Pattie. Her daughter, Murphy Murad, also started GoFundMe to raise funds for the search. As of May 19, the fundraiser has accumulated over $202,000 in donations. Since then, her family has flown to Japan to work with local volunteers and rescue specialists from the U.S. According to her family, telecommunication companies couldn't track the E-sim in her phone because she did not have a Japanese number. The case went cold until recently, and as her husband reflected on his frustrations with the lack of answers the family received, he thought of what his wife would say. 'I can imagine her (gently) smacking me in the head, and saying, 'snap out of it!' meaning, keep on moving forward,' he wrote in October. 'That's what we're all trying to do.' Wu-Murad's husband spoke to Japanese news outlet Nara Shimbun in April 2023. The outlet reported that she was Taiwanese and worked as an engineer before retiring in 2020. She was on a pilgrimage and had previously completed one in Spain. Murad said said online that she was his 'wife and best friend.' Now, the family must work to bring her remains to the U.S., he said on May 17. Wu-Murad was walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain in 2022 when she came across a documentary crew. She just so happened to start a conversation with a crew member, her daughter shared on social media. In a clip shared online, she called herself a planner and said she typically liked to know what's going to happen 'every step of the way.' 'Going to Camino, last time and this time, it has taught me that you have different life experience when you're more flexible,' she said during her interview. "You're open to new experience, new people, new everything.' She recalled befriending a young Ukranian woman a year earlier. "I think of her, " she said. "I think of how lucky I am that I am afforded to live a good life, to do the Camino. Their suffering ... I feel it. I do feel that it's my obligation to think of them and wish them well, and just thank God that I'm here." Her daughter wrote a note to her in the GoFundMe description, lovingly calling her 'Mama.' 'In a time of chaos, thank you for reigniting everyone's faith in humanity,' she wrote to her mother. 'Thank you for bringing us together with such incredible people, you have shown us the true essence of why you love these trips so much.' Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Email her at sdmartin@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Remains found of Connecticut woman missing in Japan since 2023
USA Today
19-05-2025
- USA Today
A Connecticut woman went missing 2 years ago on hike in Japan. Her remains have been found
A Connecticut woman went missing 2 years ago on hike in Japan. Her remains have been found Patricia Wu-Murad was on a pilgrimage when she went missing on April 10, 2023. She was last seen in Totsukawa, 70 miles southeast of Osaka, and planned to hike the Kumano Kodo trail. The remains of a Connecticut woman have been found after she went missing while hiking in Japan two years ago, her family confirmed on social media. Family members of 60-year-old Patricia Wu-Murad, or Pattie, as her family called her, found out about the discovery on May 9. Her husband, Kirk Murad, announced the news over the weekend. Wu-Murad went missing on April 10, 2023, and had last been seen at the Mandokoro guesthouse in Totsukawa, about 70 miles southeast of Osaka. Wu-Murad was planning to take the Kumano Kodo trail, an ancient pilgrimage route, according to her husband, Kirk Murad. Some of Wu-Murad's personal items were found over a year later in September 2024, and the search for her included American and Japanese search and rescue experts, U.S. Embassy officials in both Japan and Washington D.C., and the FBI. Then on April 27, 2025, a member of the U.S. search team returned to the area where Wu-Murad's backpack was found, according to Kirk Murad. The team member found multiple personal items of hers, as well as what he thought was a femur. He took the remains to Japanese police, and DNA testing later confirmed the remains were Wu-Murad's, her husband said. 'It offers a measure of closure, but many questions remain unanswered, including the exact circumstances and cause of Pattie's death,' Kirk Murad wrote online. Personal items were found over a year after woman went missing Wu-Murad set out to hike the Kumano Kodo trail in Japan in April 2023, according to a GoFundMe her family started to raise money for the search. People have made the pilgrimage to Kumano for over 1,000 years, according to the local tourism bureau. The Kumano Kodo is a network of routes that stretch across the Kii Peninsula. On Sept. 15, 2024, over a year after Wu-Murad went missing, a fisherman in Totsukawa village found her backpack in a stream, according to her husband. The fisherman found the backpack closer to a different trail than the one she was believed to be hiking on, Kirk Murad wrote. Inside the backpack, the fisherman found a ziploc bag with the woman's email address and her family's home address. He reported the find to the Gojo Police Station and the next day, on Sept. 16, 2024, police retrieved the backpack and stored it. 'The backpack was mostly empty with the exception of the (ziploc) bag and gravel,' her husband wrote. Police later found a shoe in a stream northeast of the guesthouse where she was last seen. Over the next few days, more items were found and family members were able to confirm they belonged to Wu-Murad, Kirk Murad said. 'This gave us hope that Pattie would finally be found,' Murad shared in October. 'However, since then, no more clues have surfaced, and we're back to being frustrated. We know this has been difficult for many of you, as Pattie touched so many lives.' Efforts to find Pattie since her disappearance Multiple Facebook groups have been made to support the search for Wu-Murad, including Help Find Pattie. Her daughter, Murphy Murad, also started GoFundMe to raise funds for the search. As of May 19, the fundraiser has accumulated over $202,000 in donations. Since then, her family has flown to Japan to work with local volunteers and rescue specialists from the U.S. According to her family, telecommunication companies couldn't track the E-sim in her phone because she did not have a Japanese number. The case went cold until recently, and as her husband reflected on his frustrations with the lack of answers the family received, he thought of what his wife would say. 'I can imagine her (gently) smacking me in the head, and saying, 'snap out of it!' meaning, keep on moving forward,' he wrote in October. 'That's what we're all trying to do.' Hiker was husband's 'wife and best friend' Wu-Murad's husband spoke to Japanese news outlet Nara Shimbun in April 2023. The outlet reported that she was Taiwanese and worked as an engineer before retiring in 2020. She was on a pilgrimage and had previously completed one in Spain. Murad said said online that she was his 'wife and best friend.' Now, the family must work to bring her remains to the U.S., he said on May 17. Wu-Murad was walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain in 2022 when she came across a documentary crew. She just so happened to start a conversation with a crew member, her daughter shared on social media. In a clip shared online, she called herself a planner and said she typically liked to know what's going to happen 'every step of the way.' 'Going to Camino, last time and this time, it has taught me that you have different life experience when you're more flexible,' she said during her interview. "You're open to new experience, new people, new everything.' She recalled befriending a young Ukranian woman a year earlier. "I think of her, " she said. "I think of how lucky I am that I am afforded to live a good life, to do the Camino. Their suffering ... I feel it. I do feel that it's my obligation to think of them and wish them well, and just thank God that I'm here." Her daughter wrote a note to her in the GoFundMe description, lovingly calling her 'Mama.' 'In a time of chaos, thank you for reigniting everyone's faith in humanity,' she wrote to her mother. 'Thank you for bringing us together with such incredible people, you have shown us the true essence of why you love these trips so much.' Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Email her at sdmartin@
CBS News
19-05-2025
- CBS News
Connecticut woman's remains found over 2 years after she went missing during hike in Japan
The remains of a Connecticut woman who went missing on a hike in Japan two years ago have been recovered, her family announced. Pattie Wu-Murad disappeared in April 2023 during a solo hiking trip in central Japan. Despite an extensive search around the Kumano Kodo Trail, which included American and Japanese search and rescue teams, the U.S. Embassy and the FBI, no trace of her was found. In September 2024, more than a year and a half after her disappearance, a fisherman found Wu-Murad's backpack and one hiking shoe near a stream on a different trail from where her family originally believed she was hiking, the family said. Japanese officials launched another search in that area, but no further evidence was found. Earlier this year, a member of the original U.S. search team who was in Japan in April, retraced the area where Wu-Murad's backpack was found and discovered several other of her personal items and what appeared to be a femur, her family said in a post on social media. Update on Pattie: On Friday, May 9, 2025, our family received confirmation that our beloved wife, mother, sister,... Posted by Kirk Murad on Saturday, May 17, 2025 On May 9, the family was told that DNA testing using a sample from Wu-Murad's daughter confirmed the remains were a match. "Although we had tried to prepare ourselves for this outcome, the finality of this news is heartbreaking," her family said in a Facebook post. "It offers a measure of closure, but many questions remain unanswered, including the exact circumstances and cause of Pattie's death. We now begin the process of working through international protocols to bring her remains home." Wu-Murad's family said they hope more evidence will be found to shed light on what happened. "There'll be more people on that trail over the coming months and years, and maybe they'll come across more evidence," her husband, Kirk Murad, told NBC Connecticut. The family expressed their gratitude for the search teams, volunteers and outpouring of support they received over the past two years. "Pattie was an incredible woman whose love and friendship touched many lives," they said. "While we are devastated, we are also humbled by the global community that rallied to help find her. We will continue to honor her memory with love and gratitude in our hearts."
