Remains of CT mom who vanished in Japan are finally found after 2-year search: ‘Many questions remain unanswered’

The remains of a missing Connecticut mom of three have been found more than two years after she disappeared on a solo hiking trip to Japan, her heartbroken family has revealed.

Patricia “Pattie” Wu-Murad, a 60-year-old new retiree, vanished on April 10, 2023, shortly after checking out of a guesthouse in Higashiōmi city at the start of an 11-mile hike to Osaka that should have taken her seven to nine hours, her family said at the time.

She planned to meet up with a couple in the Ryozen-ji Temples — but never turned up, sparking a years-long search that recently reached a tragic conclusion.

“On Friday, May 9, 2025, our family received confirmation that our beloved Wife, Mother, Sister, Daughter, Aunt, and Friend, Pattie Wu-Murad, is deceased,” the family wrote on Saturday on the Facebook group Help Find Pattie.

“It offers a measure of closure, but many questions remain unanswered, including the exact circumstances and cause of Pattie’s death,” the family said.

The heartbreaking discovery when someone re-searched the area where the mom went missing, even though a huge initial search came up with nothing.

“Despite an extensive international search effort that involved 24 American search and rescue (SAR) professionals, local Japanese SAR experts, law enforcement, U.S. Embassy officials in both Japan and Washington, D.C., the FBI, and Senator Richard Blumenthal, no trace of Pattie was found in the months following her disappearance,” the post said of the initial hunt.

Then, more than 18 months later, some of the missing mom’s belongings were discovered in September 2024, the family said.

“A fisherman discovered Pattie’s backpack and one hiking shoe near a stream closer to a different trail from where we originally believed she was hiking,” the post continued.

“Upon this discovery, Japanese police conducted a search of that region for several days, but again, no further evidence was found.”

Then, on April 27, a chilling find was made when a member of the original search team returned to Japan and decided to comb through the area where the backpack was found.

“During his hike, he discovered several of Pattie’s personal items and what appeared to be a femur. He delivered the remains to the local Japanese police, who confirmed they were human,” the family wrote.

“DNA testing was performed, and on May 9, we were notified that the remains were a match to Pattie, through comparison with our daughter’s DNA.”

The family hopes further evidence of Wu-Murad’s final movements will come to light in the following months.

“There’ll be more people on that trail over the coming months and years, and maybe they’ll come across more evidence,” her husband Kirk Murad told NBC Connecticut.

Wu-Murad’s remains are expected to be shipped back to the US in the next week or so to give her family a chance to hold a ceremony to celebrate her life, he said, adding a warning for future solo hikers.

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