Husband of Woman Missing in Japan Spends Her Birthday Alone Wondering If She Was Abducted

Last July 17, Kirk Murad and his wife Patricia — who goes by Pattie — were sitting at the Stone Row Kitchen restaurant near their Connecticut home and celebrating her 60th birthday.

"It was just the two of us," Kirk recalls of their intimate night out a year ago. "She wanted to do something nice."

This year, Kirk spent the day alone, remembering his wife and wondering where she could be.

Pattie has been missing since April 10, when vanished without a trace at the start of a solo 11.2-mile trek through a remote and mountainous area of Japan.

Months of police investigations, FBI assistance and the efforts of wilderness search-and-rescue pros have been fruitless.

"I believe she was abducted, but we don't have proof," Kirk tells The Messenger on Pattie's 61st birthday. "We asked the FBI to look into a few things and there’s nothing."

"There are no clues, no torn pieces of clothing, no physical evidence, no video," he continues.

"Despite all the manpower and expense, we are no closer to finding her than when she went missing."

Kirk rushed to Japan when he found out that his wife had gone missing. From there and later from Singapore, where he stayed with friends to save money, he coordinated the effort to find Pattie.

But on June 13, he returned to their four bedroom, 4,000-square-foot colonial home in Storrs, Conn., without Pattie or answers about where she could be.

"You look around and it's her," he says of the expansive home his wife of 33 years designed and decorated, down to the doorknobs.

"It doesn't feel like home when she is not here," he says. "I feel like I am missing a big part of myself."

Two of the couple's children, daughter Murphy, 28, and son Bryce, 25, moved back home to keep Kirk company. Another daughter, Rachel, 32, lives nearby. 

"We have good days and bad days," he says. "I am sure she wouldn't want me moping but she has been my partner through life for 37 years."

Pattie's birthday on Monday was a hot, sticky day. Kirk thinks they would have enjoyed ice cream together at a favorite spot, the UConn Dairy Bar, on the University of Connecticut campus.

Instead, he visited the dairy bar by himself, and ordered one of Pattie’s favorite flavors, chocolate peanut butter swirl.

Then he walked along the rolling hills of Horsebarn Hill, a favorite hike of Pattie’s, and spoke aloud to the best friend he misses. 

"I was asking her where she was, and asking her if she could give us a clue, and if she is deceased, what is it like up there," he says. "It's stuff I think about all the time."