The search for a Connecticut woman who disappeared while hiking in Japan two months ago has ended due to an “underwhelming amount of evidence found,” the woman’s family said Sunday.
Patricia “Pattie” Wu-Murad, 60, was reported missing by Japanese authorities on April 10 when she failed to arrive at the Taiyo-no-yu guesthouse hostel in Osaka as expected after her hike along the Kumano Kodo trail.
The U.S. embassy notified her family on April 14 following a 72-hour search by a Japanese rescue team.
However, as the search for Wu-Murad nears the two-month mark without a sign of the missing hiker, her family says that all search efforts have ended.
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“If we had the time, resources and financial capacity to search every trail in the area with as much depth and precision as we did this one, we would,” Wu-Murad’s daughter Murphy posted in an update on the family’s GoFundMe. “However, the reality is all search efforts have ended as of May 30 due to the underwhelming amount of evidence found.”
The Murad family had hired a private investigation team and flew to Japan to help local authorities in the search.
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While saying that it is “heartbreaking” to “have come up empty-handed,” Murphy wrote that the family would continue to work with Japanese police and the FBI to get Wu-Murad’s cellphone data in the hopes it can provide important information.
Wu-Murad is described as an experienced hiker who has done treks all over the world.
FOX News’ Brie Stimson contributed to this report.
