A woman who vanished decades ago has been miraculously found alive, and now her story is going viral. Patricia Kopta disappeared around June 20, 1992 — and over the past 30+ years, nobody has been able to locate her. With the vast majority of disappearances of this nature, the missing person is declared dead or expected to be deceased long before this much time has passed. That is why international headlines are widely reporting this week’s discovery. What was this missing woman doing all the time that she was gone?
Patricia Kopta was located in Puerto Rico recently after she vanished over 30 years ago from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When she vanished all those years ago, it was as if she completely disappeared off the face of the planet, making the search for her completely unsuccessful. According to her disappearance profile on The Charley Project, Patricia was a street preacher who apparently suffered from schizophrenia. She had an otherwise normal life, but also lived a life that was rather dangerous. She’d been physically assaulted and robbed at least once leading up to her disappearance. These numerous details surrounding her disappearance led to the assumption that she was dead.
She was 52-years-old when she disappeared. Now in her 80s, Patricia Kopta was located in elder care in Puerto Rico. It was there that she admitted that she’s been living under a false identity for multiple decades. While this story is going viral, there are still few verifiable details regarding how she ended up in PR, and why. What’s fortunate is that the elderly woman had a change of heart and decided to come forward and solve her own decades-old missing case. Hopefully any surviving loved ones of Patricia Kopta can reunite with her and mend the wounds of the past.
Chelsea Hoffman is a true crime writer with over a decade of professional writing experience. She is best known for her coverage of missing people including the tragic disappearance of Madeleine McCann as well as the heartbreaking cases of Dylan Redwine, Heather Elvis and many others.
