Woman missing more than 30 years found living in Puerto Rico nursing home

A Pennsylvania woman who disappeared more than 30 years ago and was believed to be dead by her family recently was found living in a nursing home in Puerto Rico, her family and police said at a news conference Thursday.

Patricia Kopta, 83, was last seen in Pittsburgh in the summer of 1992, according to a missing-person flyer posted by the Pennsylvania Emergency Response Center. Her husband, Bob Kopta, reported her missing a few months later in the fall. At the time, he told authorities it wasn't uncommon for his wife to “drop out of sight for short periods,” according to the flyer.

“I come home one night and she's gone, and nobody knew where she was at,” Bob Kopta said at the news conference with Ross Township Police.

Police said they first were informed about the discovery of the missing woman when an agent from the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol, and a social worker from Puerto Rico contacted them last year saying that they believed Patricia Kopta was living in an adult care home in Puerto Rico.

“What they reported to us was that she came into their care in 1999, when she was found in need in the streets of Puerto Rico,” Ross Township Deputy Chief Brian Kohlhepp said.

Interpol and the social worker said Patricia Kopta was found wandering the streets and through the years she had “refused to ever discuss her private life or where she came from,” Kohlhepp said. In her advanced age, she started revealing nuggets that would eventually spur those around her to contact Ross police, Kohlhepp said.

When she was in Pittsburgh, Patricia Kopta was a “well-known street preacher,” according to the missing-person flyer. She would approach strangers, telling them she had visions of the Virgin Mary and that the world was coming to an end, the flyer said.

Police said her disappearance wasn't overtly suspicious because they “knew she had a mental health history and 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,” Kohlhepp said.

Her husband said that his wife had talked about wanting to go to Puerto Rico to live in a tropical environment.

“I even advertised in the paper down in Puerto Rico looking for her,” Bob Kopta said at the news conference, adding that he spent a lot of money over the years searching for her.