A Pennsylvania woman who has been missing for 30 years was found alive in an adult care home in Puerto Rico, her family stated.
For 30 years, the Ross Township Police Department outside of Pittsburgh has been looking for street preacher Patricia Kopta, according to WPXI news “I come home one night, and she’s just gone, and nobody knows where she’s at,” her husband, Bob Kopta, told the outlet. (RELATED: Father Of Five Mysteriously Disappears During Work Trip)
Patricia reportedly struggled with mental health issues and had often talked of wanting to go to Puerto Rico because it was warm, her husband told the outlet. “It’s been going on almost 31 years it’s been bad. It cost me a lot of money, I even put advertisements down in the paper in Puerto Rico looking for her,” Kopta told WPXI.
Patricia Kopta, a Pittsburgh street preacher, also known as “The Sparrow” has been found after being missing for more than 30 years. https://t.co/7hQL954eWE
— WPXI (@WPXI) March 3, 2023
All of that effort finally paid off when Kopta received word from an agent with Interpol and a social worker in Puerto Rico that his long-lost wife was believed to be in the care of an adult home on the island.
“They said she came into their care in 1999 when she was found in need in the streets where she is wandering around. While there, she refused to discuss her private life or where she came from,” said Deputy Chief Brian Kohlhepp of the Ross Township Police told the outlet.
Suffering from dementia, Patricia reportedly offered up enough details to individuals in the care home that alerted them to Ross Township. DNA samples confirmed her identity, the outlet stated,
Gloria Smith was “shocked” by the discovery, telling the outlet that she thought her sister Patricia had been dead all of those years.
“We didn’t expect it and it was a very big shock to find out she was alive, and we are so happy, and I hope I can get down to see her,” Smith told the outlet.