A Pennsylvania woman who disappeared decades ago has been found alive in Puerto Rico

A Penn­syl­va­nia woman who dis­ap­peared more than 30 years ago and was legal­ly pre­sumed dead has been found alive in a retire­ment home in Puer­to Rico, her fam­i­ly and police said.

Patri­cia Cop­ta dis­ap­peared in 1992, and for years inves­ti­ga­tors have been chas­ing clues about her dis­ap­pear­ance, Ross Town­ship Deputy Police Chief Bri­an Kohlhep said Friday.

Before dis­ap­pear­ing from her north Pitts­burgh home, Ms. Kop­ta was known as a “quirky” street preach­er who called her­self “Spar­row,” he said.

Sev­en years after her dis­ap­pear­ance, Cop­ta, now 83, was found wan­der­ing in north­ern Puer­to Rico and was held in a nurs­ing home as a “per­son of inter­est,” Kohlhep said in a press con­fer­ence Thursday.

Kohlhepp said that while she kept the details of her life secret, her demen­tia-strick­en Kop­ta over the years began to divulge her information.

Last year, Cop­ta dis­closed enough infor­ma­tion for a nurs­ing home social work­er to con­tact Penn­syl­va­nia author­i­ties to con­firm her iden­ti­ty. A DNA test con­firmed that she was the miss­ing woman, Kohlhepp says.

“She was wor­ried that she would be involved in a crime,” Kohlhepp said. “I think that’s why she decid­ed to flee her coun­try,” Kohlhepp said Friday.

Before her dis­ap­pear­ance, Cop­ta was diag­nosed with “mega­lo­ma­nia” by her doc­tors and was told she had symp­toms of schiz­o­phre­nia, and she was tem­porar­i­ly insti­tu­tion­al­ized. Her fam­i­ly said she was released and con­tin­ued her preach­ing until her disappearance.

In Puer­to Rico, she wan­dered through the north­ern towns of Naran­hi­to, Corozal, and Toa Alta, south­west of the cap­i­tal, San Juan. Kohlhep said when she was first brought to the adult res­i­dence, it was implied that she had come to Puer­to Rico from Europe on a cruise ship.

Pitts­burgh res­i­dent Bob Cop­ta, 86, said Fri­day he had been mar­ried for 20 years when his wife dis­ap­peared. His fam­i­ly sus­pect­ed his wife was in Puer­to Rico. For years, Bob Cop­ta said he had placed ads in Puer­to Rican news­pa­pers try­ing to find his wife and con­sult­ed psy­chics about her wife’s whereabouts.

Kop­ta, a retired elec­tri­cian, said his wife was con­firmed dead about 25 years ago.

Every time local police found her body, they wor­ried it might be her wife. “She was relieved to know that she was­n’t lying in a ditch some­where or that she was being killed some­where,” he said.

Patri­cia Cop­ta had her twin sis­ter who died six years before her and her sis­ter who was relieved to know she was alive, Bob Cop­ta said.

Bob Cop­ta said he’s been through a range of emo­tions over the decades, but is hap­py Patri­cia is alive and in pro­fes­sion­al care, he added.

“In 30 years, you try to for­get. In 30 years, you try to for­get. But now you can for­get. In 30 years, you try to for­get.” I can for­get it now.

Accord­ing to Bob Cop­ta, Patri­cia Cop­ta worked as a lift oper­a­tor at the Pitts­burgh Muse­um of Art pri­or to her disappearance.

She was a good stu­dent, she became a mod­el and a dance teacher. After high school, she was in charge of finance for a flat glass com­pa­ny in Pitts­burgh and attend­ed week­ly ball­room danc­ing events, her fam­i­ly said.

Patri­cia Cop­ta’s sis­ter, Glo­ria Smith, now 78, told The Asso­ci­at­ed Press that her sis­ter often vaca­tioned in Puer­to Rico with her friends before they got mar­ried. She “she loved the sea, the beach and the warm sun”.

Smith says she looks for­ward to vis­it­ing her sis­ter, even if she is frail.

“Whether or not her girl­friend knows me, I still want to see her, hug her and tell her I love her,” Smith said. “I thought maybe she was dead.”