‘Hoping upon hope’: Missing woman’s backpack found more than a year after her disappearance

HARTFORD, Conn. (WFSB/Gray News) - A Connecticut woman has been missing for nearly a year and a half after traveling to Japan, but her family is holding onto hope that she may still be alive.

According to those close to the search for Patricia Wu-Murad, her backpack was discovered near a stream by a person who was fishing in Totsukawa village earlier this month.

Wu-Murad vanished on April 10, 2023. She was said to have been hiking on the Kumano Kodo trail.

Her family has been searching ever since.

Despite constant check-ins on the search for his missing wife Patti, Kirk Murad says he kept getting the same response from Japanese police.

“They’re basically saying we’ve continued the search, but we’ve found nothing and then they cut and pasted that every two weeks,” Kirk Murad said.

But on Sept. 17, Kirk Murad said he received a message that was much different than the usual cut and paste from the police.

They told him that on Sept. 15 her backpack was found.

Wu-Murad’s sister-in-law, Julie Ann, reported that inside was her email address and family address, which was hand-written on a Ziploc bag.

“The items were located in a stream northeast of the Mandokoro guesthouse, where she was last seen,” Ann said.

Investigators said they retrieved the backpack and also found a shoe downstream.

“We were able to ascertain that all those things did belong to Patti, so we had some excitement and thought maybe this is a breakthrough,” Kirk Murad said.

The items have given police a location to focus on, but Kirk Murad said they are still waiting for further updates from authorities.

“Now, we’re back to frustration, the same frustration for the last 17 months, where there’s nothing,” he said.

The emotions have also led to Kirk Murad moving out of Connecticut, as his home kept reminding him of his missing wife.

As the search continues, family, friends, and crew are hanging on to the hope that Wu-Murad will still be found alive.

“Hoping upon hope that she’s still alive and we can bring her home,” Kirk Murad said.

He said there was no timeline on how long the search would last.

The family’s GoFundMe to aid in the search efforts remains active.

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