Pitt student reported missing

A fifth-year Pitt student has been reported missing since the last week of April…. A fifth-year Pitt student has been reported missing since the last week of April.

Pranesh Patel, a 23-year-old electrical engineering student at Pitt, was last seen by his roommate John Vroom on April 24 during finals week, according to Vroom.

Patel’s parents, from New Jersey, reported his disappearance to the Pittsburgh police missing persons unit the following week.

“Slightly after his last final, he went upstairs and crashed,” Vroom said of his last interaction with Patel in their apartment on Chesterfield Street in Oakland. “I woke up at seven the next morning and he wasn’t there. I was thinking he probably went back to Benedum [Hall] and worked on his senior design project.”

When Vroom realized his roommate had disappeared, Patel’s

keys, wallet and backpack were gone, but his laptop and cell phone were noticeably left behind, said Vroom.

Patel missed his finals on April 27 and failed to attend the final presentation for his senior design project, according to Vroom and a media alert from the Pittsburgh police.

Patel had been under added stress leading up to finals week. His design project for mechanical measurements III, a capstone-like engineering class, was stolen or lost four weeks before it was due, and he needed to retake some classes in a sixth year at Pitt before he could graduate, said Vroom.

“It seems like he just needed to get out,” Vroom said.

Patel held no job around the time of the disappearance, but Vroom speculates that he could have gone to Alaska to work as a crab fisherman.

The two had talked about taking the job during the summer after watching the Discovery Channel’s show “Deadliest Catch,” and Patel had researched it for more than five hours on the Internet, according to Vroom.

Anyone with information on Patel or his whereabouts should contact the Pittsburgh missing persons unit at (412) 323-7141.

Patel is 5-11, about 170 or 180 pounds and of Indian descent. He has brown skin, brown eyes and black hair.

“There are days when I think he’ll call me on the phone or I’ll walk into the house and he’ll be sitting on the couch,” Vroom said. “I’m not going to react until I figure out what happened.”

Editor’s note: Continue to check www.pittnews.com and the print edition every Wednesday for updated information.