Patricia Kopta- Missing Woman Found Alive After 31 Years

Patricia Kopta, a street preacher from Pennsylvania, was discovered alive at a nursing facility for adults in Puerto Rico more than three decades after she was reported missing.

The Story of Patricia Kopta

Patricia Kopta was last seen in 1992. Her family didn't know what happened to her, and it seemed like they never would for more than 30 years. Then, in a surprising turn of events, Patricia Kopta was found 31 years later in a nursing home in Puerto Rico, 1,700 miles away.

The now 83-year-old Kopta was recognized by a social worker at the adult care facility after she disclosed details about her history. The three-decade-long mystery of what happened to Patrica Kopta is now over, even though it's unclear exactly what she said or how she ended up in the nursing home in the first place.

Bob, Kopta's husband, filed a missing persons report for her in 1992, and seven years later, he had her legally declared dead.

“You wouldn’t believe what we’ve been through,” her husband, Bob Kopta, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “It’s such a relief to know she’s alive.”

In the start of their marriage, Kopta said that his wife fit the profile of a typical Roman Catholic suburbanite. She worked in Pittsburgh throughout the week and commuted there each day. She spent her Sundays in church and her Saturdays at ballroom dance competitions.

During time, though, Bob Kopta noticed some odd behavior, and she became more devout in her religion. As time went on, she started babbling incoherently about how the Virgin Mary had appeared to her to forewarn her of a nuclear holocaust.

“Something must have happened. Somebody got to her because she started on this whole ‘the world is going to end’ thing,” Bob Kopta said. “She lost her job and started hanging around downtown. When there was a baseball game going on, when a concert was going on, she’d be telling everybody to go home because the world was going to end in three days.” Bob said in an interview.

Patricia Kopta was attacked by a gang of young women who took her wedding and engagement rings in 1991. In addition to her many run-ins with the law, Kopta was arrested in Monroeville, where she was subsequently diagnosed with "delusions of grandeur" and schizophrenia by medical professionals.

After returning home one day in 1992, Bob Kopta discovered that his wife had disappeared.

“She had made statements to other family individuals that she was leaving, that she was concerned that she was going to be placed into a care facility here,” said Ross Township Police Chief Brian Kohlhepp, according to The New York Times.

Finally, Patricia Kopta was pronounced legally dead by the authorities. Her husband never married again.

Nursing home staff discovered Kopta wandering the streets of Puerto Rico in 1999. She wouldn't divulge any personal information to them other than the fact that she had arrived on the island from Europe via cruise liner. That assertion could not be verified.

Then, as Kopta grew older and experienced dementia, she began disclosing more information about her background. She eventually “leaked enough details about her identity that [her caretakers] were able to connect enough dots to contact us,” according to Kohlhepp.

The nine-month forensic investigation was launched by Ross police to prove her identity. Kopta's sister and nephew gave cheek swab DNA samples for comparison, police found her dental records, and Puerto Rico officials sent over a sample of her DNA.

“These were processed and revealed that the woman in Puerto Rico is indeed Patricia Kopta, alive and well for her advanced age and condition,” according to Kohlhepp.

“After 30 years, you try to forget about it,” Bob Kopta said. “Now, I can forget about it. We know what happened, and she is taken care of now.”