Missing student found in Montana

Investigators ended a two-month long search for a missing Pitt student and reunited him with… Investigators ended a two-month long search for a missing Pitt student and reunited him with his family this weekend.

Private Investigator Chris Findley and the Pittsburgh police confirmed yesterday that they found electrical engineering student Pranesh Patel, 23, on Saturday.

According to Findley, the park rangers at Glacier National Park in Montana contacted Patel’s brother, Tarak, last Thursday with news that they had seen Patel and deduced he was a missing person.

When contacted for more information on Patel’s time spent in the park, Melissa Wilson of the National Park Service said, “We cannot confirm anything. We respect the rights to privacy of individuals that enter the parks freely.”

Findley traveled to Montana last Friday, following the lead, checking campsites and “as many places as I possibly could until I found him,” he said.

He did not find Patel in the park, but instead located him in the nearby town of Columbia Fall, Mont.

“I witnessed him and stuck with him,” Findley said of the time period between his arrival in Montana and his first interaction with Patel. “He didn’t know who I was, so I waited until the family arrived.”

Patel’s mother, brother and the private investigator approached him at about 2:50 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Saturday.

“We all just basically talked for a few minutes and he said he was coming home,” Findley said.

Patel and his family declined to speak to The Pitt News, and Findley would not yet comment on why Patel disappeared, what he had been doing since his disappearance, how he arrived in Montana or what his future plans entail.

Pitt spokesman John Fedele said that Patel has not graduated or withdrawn from Pitt, nor has he registered for the fall 2007 semester.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act prohibits the University from releasing any other academic information on Patel.

Patel was last seen April 24 during finals week by his roommate John Vroom.

Patel’s brother and Vroom reported the fifth-year senior missing nine days later, after Patel missed his final exams and presentation for a senior capstone.

Patel had taken his keys, backpack and wallet but had left behind his cell phone and laptop, Vroom said in May.

At the time, Vroom had speculated that Patel left for Alaska to pursue a job on a crab-fishing boat, like the ones he had researched extensively online and watched on the Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” program, narrated by Mike Rowe.

More than $1,000 was withdrawn from Patel’s bank account in the days before his disappearance, and Pittsburgh police confirmed he had a suspended license because of a DUI offense in December.

But as for Patel’s status from the time of his disappearance until now, “he had done nothing wrong, he was fine,” Findley said.

Findley added that while Patel, his mother or his brother may speak to the press at a later time, he thinks that, for now, “they want to be left alone, to be with the family.”