Husband of missing woman pronounced dead issues emotional statement after she was found decades later

The husband of a woman missing for more than three decades has made an emotional statement after her miraculous discovery.

Patricia Kopta disappeared from her neighborhood in North Hills, Pittsburgh, United States on June 20, 1992, and was reported missing by her husband Bob on November 27, 1992.

Bob waited a few months before reporting her missing, as it was known that she had been moving away for a while due to her deteriorating mental health.

Patricia, a devout Roman Catholic, was known as a “free spirit” and claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary, while preaching messages related to her religion and telling foreigners that we were all going to die in a global nuclear holocaust.

But after police were unable to find her, she was classified as a “seriously missing person” and urgent searches were launched.

At the time, the “eccentric” Patricia was 52 years old and said to “love the ocean, the beach and the warm sun,” enjoying trips to Puerto Rico before marrying Bob, according to reports by his sister Gloria.

She firmly believed that her sister may have run away to start a new life that fit that description, but no one had any way of knowing since Patricia had gone silent on the radio, worrying her husband who thought that she could be “lying in a ditch somewhere.” '.

Bob even paid a psychic to try to find answers and took out ads in Puerto Rican newspapers trying to find his wife, to whom he had been married since 1972, 12 years before a doctor diagnosed him with “craziness.” greatness”, with suspicions of schizophrenia.

Seven years after her disappearance, Patricia's family received a legal declaration deeming her dead.

Bob later said: “I come home one night and she has just left. » I have endured a lot. Every time they found a body somewhere [I wondered], 'Is this Patricia? Is it Patricia?'”

However, in 2023, 31 years after her disappearance, Patricia was found in a nursing home in Puerto Rico, after a social worker learned more about the woman and contacted authorities.

When the news broke, Bob, who never remarried, spoke at a press conference, saying: “It's a sad thing, but it's a relief to me. When your wife disappears, you are a suspect.”

The 86-year-old was then asked how he felt being a suspect in the case, to which he replied: “After 30 years you try to forget that.

“Now I can forget about it. We know what happened and we're taking care of her now. She could have come home at any time. But that's what she wanted. She always said she wanted to go to a warm climate.”

Patricia wandered aimlessly around the house in 1999, before she was taken in, and although she remained private about her past, she began to open up more while suffering from dementia.

A DNA test confirmed it was Patricia, and her sister Gloria was also relieved when she heard the news as she flew straight to Puerto Rico to see her long-lost sister.

Gloria told WMTW, “We are very grateful to know that Patty is alive and well.”

“She is well taken care of. We really thought she was dead all these years. It was a very big shock to know that she is still alive.”

Police suggested she may have abandoned her husband and her country after realizing she was at risk of being institutionalized due to her mental state.

Featured Image Credit: WPXI

Topics: US News, News, Mental Health