‘Dead’ Pennsylvania woman found in Puerto Rico alive is ‘rare’ ending after missing for decades

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For more than 30 years, Patricia Kopta's husband thought his wife was dead after she vanished in 1992, and police were so desperate to find her that they even consulted a psychic, officials said.

Despite the frantic search, there was no sign of her, and Kopta was declared legally dead in the late 1990s.

"Every time they’d find a body somewhere (I wondered), ‘Is it Patricia? Is it Patricia?’" said her husband Bob Kopta, a retired truck driver who never remarried.

But all this time, she was alive and being taken care of in an adult care home in Puerto Rico, police in Ross Township, Pennsylvania, where she used to live, said at a press conference last week.

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Patricia Kopta, now 83, who was declared legally dead in the late 1990s after disappearing in Pennsylvania, was found alive in Puerto Rico in 2023. (Ross Township Police)

"I've been in law enforcement 22, 23 years, and it's so rare to have a successful resolution in a missing person case from decades ago," Deputy Brian Kohlhepp told Fox News Digital. "When I called her husband and her sister, who's her only living relative, they were shocked. They couldn't believe it."   

Kopta, now 83, was found in 1999 while wandering through the towns of Naranjito, Corozal and Toa Alta in the northern part of Puerto Rico and taken in as a person "in need," but she never told anyone about her life in the United States, police said.

Bits and pieces of her life trickled out over the years as she progressively suffered from dementia, Kohlhepp said during the press conference, and individuals in Puerto Rico were able to piece her life together.

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A social worker gathered enough information that she relayed to authorities in Ross Township, where she was a street preacher known as "The Sparrow, a model and dance instructor.

A DNA test confirmed her identity after about a year, Kohlhepp said. 

Patricia Kopta, now 83, who was declared legally dead in the late 1990s after disappearing in Pennsylvania, was found alive in Puerto Rico in 2023. (Ross Township Police)

Kopta's sister, Gloria Smith, said she often vacationed in Puerto Rico with her friends before she got married because she "loved the ocean, the beach, the warm sunshine," she told the Associated Press. 

Smith said her sister quit her job at the glass company after 10 years because of migraines that doctors blamed on stress. She then got a job as an elevator operator at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh.

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That’s when family members noticed a change in her behavior. "She said something about seeing an angel there," Smith recalled.

Kopta believed she was chosen as one of God's 144,000 "bond servants" on Earth, and gave up all her other hobbies, such as dancing, to devote her life to spreading the word of God, according to the Charley Project, a missing person database. 

An aerial view of the seaside neighborhood of La Perla, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, about 20 miles from where Patricia Kopta was found. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo, File)

Kopta was briefly institutionalized after doctors diagnosed her with "delusions of grandeur" and said she had signs of schizophrenia. Upon her release, she kept preaching until she vanished in 1992.

"Unlike most people who stayed on the streets all day, she maintained a neat, attractive appearance, wearing makeup and a dress or skirt each day," according to the Charley Project. "She had had numerous run-ins with the police and, each time, would tell them to be ready because the end of the world was coming.

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"Her sister stated Kopta was often mistreated by the strangers she approached. At least once she was beaten and robbed of her jewelry, and she had a vision that she would eventually be beaten to death."

Kopta's husband published ads in Puerto Rican newspapers because he knew she was drawn to the island's "balmy weather" but it didn't yield any results, and he obtained a death declaration about seven years after her disappearance.

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"I went through a lot," he said. "It’s a sad thing, but it’s a relief off my mind. When your wife goes missing, you’re a suspect."

He said he doesn't plan on visiting her, but he's glad to know she's being taken care of.