Family of missing Japan hiker from Conn. gets closure after remains are found

The family of a missing Storrs woman who disappeared while hiking in Japan more than two years ago is getting a sense of closure after her remains were found earlier this month.

Pattie Wu-Murad went missing in April of 2023 while hiking alone in the Nara prefecture in central Japan. Her family says an initial 72-hour search for her turned up with no leads. Her husband Kirk Murad says the family worked with local Japanese officials and private search teams to spread out to other areas where Pattie may have been. This included using specialized drones, but still found nothing.

A year and a half later, Murad says a fisherman found Pattie’s backpack and hiking shoe near a stream on a different trail and last month, a member of the U.S. private search team went back to that area and found more of Pattie’s personal items and a femur.

“To find out that within a few hours of stepping on that trail again he found, you know, several items and he found the femur. Just blew us away really,” Murad said.

That femur went through DNA testing was determined to be Pattie’s, matching with their daughter Murphy. Murad says for his family this news has been tough to process, but has given a sense of closure.

“We finally have time to grieve because we never really grieved her passing it's just, you know, always hoping that 0.1% chance that she might still be alive,” he said.

He says questions remain on how Pattie died, something he acknowledges his family may never know. Murad is hopeful there may be some answers in the future.

“There'll be more people on that trail over the coming months and years and maybe they'll come across more evidence," he said.

Murad says he’s extremely grateful for the private search teams, local Japanese officials and the others for their support in the search for Pattie. He says the search teams risked their lives to find any trace of Pattie no matter how fruitful it initially was.

“These people are just amazing human beings. And they worked well with the family. They had compassion. They had empathy,” he said.

He says the hope is for Pattie’s remains to be shipped back to the U.S. in the next week or so and eventually have a ceremony with family to celebrate her life. Murad says there are two takeaways for him.

“Think twice if you're going hiking alone, or at least wear something that tracks your location and number two, tomorrow is not promised,” he said.

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