Latest news with #Wu-Murad
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@
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Yahoo
Connecticut mom's remains found 2 years after she vanished 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. 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." Raw Video: Mexican navy training ship hits Brooklyn Bridge Italy's Trulli: From Past to Present Will the House Republican budget be a sinking ship in the Senate?
Newsweek
18-05-2025
- Newsweek
Missing Woman's Remains Found Two Years After Her Trip to Japan
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The remains of Patricia "Pattie" Wu-Murad, a Connecticut woman who went missing more than two years ago while hiking in Japan, have been found, her family confirmed Saturday in a post on her husband Kirk Murad's Facebook account. "The finality of this news is heartbreaking," the family wrote. Newsweek reached out to Murad for additional comment via Facebook Messenger on Sunday. The Context Wu-Murad, a mother of three, was reported missing while on a solo hiking trip on the Kumano Kodo trail in Japan on April 10, 2023. The pilgrimage route is known for its beauty, tranquility, and spirituality. Almost a year-and-a-half later, in September 2024, a fisherman found some of her belongings including her backpack and a hiking shoe, the family wrote in a Saturday Facebook post. The family received official notice of Wu-Murad's death on May 9, according to the post. Wu-Murad retired during the COVID-19 pandemic and began traveling solo more frequently, including hiking part of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in Europe, according to CT Insider. What To Know The family, along with various search and rescue teams, carried out numerous efforts over the past two years to find Wu-Murad. Her family said the efforts "involved 24 American search and rescue (SAR) professionals, local Japanese SAR experts, law enforcement, U.S. Embassy officials in both Japan and Washington, D.C., the FBI, and Senator Richard Blumenthal." On April 27, a member of the U.S. search team retracing the area where Wu-Murad's backpack was previously found discovered a femur and brought it to local police, who later confirmed through DNA testing that the remains belonged to Wu-Murad, her family wrote in the post. "Although we had tried to prepare ourselves for this outcome, the finality of this news is heartbreaking," they wrote, adding that "it offers a measure of closure, but many questions remain unanswered, including the exact circumstances and cause of Pattie's death." The social media post concluded with the family writing, "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 honor her memory with love and gratitude in our hearts." Inset: Photo of Patricia Wu-Murad from a GoFundMe page organizing rescue efforts. A sign indicating Kumano Kodo hiking pilgrimage trail in Totsukawa, Japan, on August 24, 2017. Inset: Photo of Patricia Wu-Murad from a GoFundMe page organizing rescue efforts. A sign indicating Kumano Kodo hiking pilgrimage trail in Totsukawa, Japan, on August 24, 2017. ANTOINE BOUREAU/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images They also thanked all the various search and rescue team members, volunteers, and supporters. The family raised over $200,000 for rescue fees on GoFundMe. An Instagram account dedicated to finding Wu-Murad also shared the latest update to its over 1,000 followers. Many social media users shared condolences with the family and expressed their fondness for Wu-Murad. What People Are Saying Storrs, Connecticut, resident Alexa Udell told Local News 8, WTNH: "I hope that with modern forensics methods they can kind of piece it back together. I feel like I hear about that all the time with older cases and stuff more recently where they can back track and figure out what happened to people. I hope that eventually her family is able to get that information." What Happens Next? The family is working through international protocols to bring Wu-Murad's remains home. A date for her memorial service has not yet been publicized.
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Yahoo
Remains found in Japan confirmed to be missing hiker from CT
The remains of a missing hiker from Storrs were recently found in Japan more than two years after she went missing on a hike. On Friday, her family received confirmation that she was dead, her husband, Kirk Murad, said. On April 27, a member of the original American search and rescue team who had searched for Pattie Wu-Murad in 2023, returned to the area where a backpack and a shoe and other items belonging to Wu-Murad had been found last September and found a femur, which was determined to be human, Kirk said. The DNA in the femur was tested and it reportedly matched the DNA of their daughter Murphy, according to Murad. 'After all this time, we kind of thought that was the outcome, but it still hit us like a ton of bricks,' Murad said from New Mexico, where he lives now. 'It's final, you know. We had that glimmer of hope.' Wu-Murad, 60, of Storrs went missing on April 10, 2023, after setting out for an 11.2-mile hike on the Kumano Kodo Trail in a mountainous area of Japan. The owner of the hostel where she had stayed the night before pointed her to the trailhead, and that was the last time anyone reported seeing her. She was an experienced hiker who had hiked and traveled all over the world. A massive search and rescue operation was initiated by Wu-Murad's family. Her husband and two of their children went to Japan to search for her, but nothing was found. The search and rescue person who found the remains had happened to be in Japan and reached out and asked Murad if he could keep looking in the place where the backpack had been found last fall. Murray said yes. According to Murad, he found the femur and several personal items of Wu-Murad's, including a stuff sack and a waistband to the backpack she was wearing. He delivered the remains to the Japanese police, who tested the bone and determined it was human. A Facebook post in the group 'Help Find Pattie' stated that '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 home.' The remains and personal items were found on a trail where the search and rescue people hadn't looked initially because Wu-Murad wasn't supposed to be on that particular trail. 'He knew the area because he had been there in 2023, but he hadn't searched that trail where they found the backpack,' Murad said. 'It's all conjecture. We're guessing she got on that other trail for whatever reason. '(Their son) Bryce went that way (when they were there searching for her). We said, 'Well, she said she's going on the other trail.' He walked it for like three miles and said, 'No, this is too dangerous.' We didn't think she went that way. Even after they found the backpack and the shoe, the police aren't search and rescue people so they searched the area, but they didn't find anything.' On March 4, 2023, Murad, a long-time educator and coach who lived in Storrs, dropped Wu-Murad, his wife of 33 years, off at Newark Airport. That was the last time he saw her. Wu-Murad, 60, was retired from her job at United Technologies and was an experienced hiker who had hiked and traveled all over the world. The couple has three children. Murad had spoken to his wife the week before she disappeared. She told him she might not be able to contact him because she was in a remote area, so he thought nothing of it when he didn't hear from her for a few days. He got a call from the U.S. Embassy on April 14, 2023, telling him she was missing, and the local police had been looking for her. He immediately rushed to Japan with two of his children, Murphy and Bryce. Multiple search and rescue teams, police, volunteers and the family, spent thousands of hours scouring the area on foot and with helicopters and drones, but no trace of her had been found until last September when a fisherman found her backpack and other items. Murad still has questions about what happened to his wife. Murphy, who lives in Singapore, got on a plane to Japan as soon as the family found out about the remains. 'She was able to meet the search and rescue guy and the police and walked the area,' Murad said. 'She said based on what she was told, that region, with all the movement of water coming down the mountain, movement of gravel, erosion, she may not have died right there, it might have been up higher. 'I try not to think too much about it. It's all guesswork, we don't know,' Murad said. 'Probably the combination of erosion, water, animals, decay. … It's enough to identify her. It's not enough to identify how she died. We have no idea.' Murad said there will be a memorial service for Pattie, but he wasn't sure when. 'It gives us a little bit of closure,' he said. 'I would just say, 'Remember the good stuff. Tomorrow's not promised. Live your best life.''
