rooms inside of a nursing home
Adobe Stock

Woman who went missing 30 years ago discovered alive

A Pennsylvania woman, who has not been seen since the summer of 1992 and was later declared legally dead, was discovered alive and living in a nursing home in Puerto Rico, DNA has confirmed.

Pennsylvania woman missing for 30 years discovered alive in Puerto Rico

In the summer of 1992, Patricia Kopta was last seen in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, then “dropped out of sight.”

A few months later, her husband, Bob Kopta, reported her missing in the fall. He told authorities, at the time, it wasn’t uncommon for his wife to “drop out of sight for short periods.”

Kopta began street preaching and was briefly institutionalized. Doctors diagnosed her with “delusions of grandeur,” stating she had signs of schizophrenia.

According to The Pennsylvania Emergency Response Center, which posted a flyer and listed Patricia as a “critical missing person,” stating that Patricia’s family believed she took a flight to Puerto Rico. She had spent a week or two there before returning to Pittsburgh before this most recent disappearance.

The flyer stated that Patricia was a well-known street preacher in Pittsburgh, approaching strangers and telling them she had a vision of the Virgin Mary and that the world was about to end.

According to the flyer, Patricia disappeared around June 20 of 1992, but her husband did not report her missing until November 27. When Patricia was last seen, she was 52 years old, with black hair, green eyes, a height between 5′-4″ and 5′-10″, and weighing approximately 110-115 pounds.

Police say that because they knew Patricia “had a mental health history and she had made statements to other family individuals that she was leaving,” her disappearance wasn’t considered suspicious. Police said Patricia “was concerned that she was going to be placed into a care facility here” and likely left town of her own volition.

How DNA connected the dots

Last year, an agent from the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) and a social worker from Puerto Rico contacted Patricia’s family and told them they believed she was living in an adult care home in Puerto Rico, CNN reported.

“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.

According to both INTERPOL and the social worker, Patricia had been found wandering the streets. Through the years, she had “refused to ever discuss her private life or where she came from.”

However, as Patricia advanced in age, she began to suffer progressively from dementia. She began to reveal small bits of information that would eventually spur those around her to contact Pennsylvania authorities, Chief Kohlhepp said, Today reported.

During a nine-month-long process, police say they compared DNA samples from Patricia and those provided by her 78-year-old sister, Gloria Smith, and her nephew.

Even before DNA testing was complete and confirmed Patricia’s identity, the family said they knew it was her as soon as they saw her photo.

“We really thought she was dead all those years,” Smith said at a news conference. “We didn’t expect it. It was a very big shock to see – to know that she’s still alive. You know, we’re so happy and I hope I can get down to see her.”