AK AK - Hari Karasani, 24, missing from Healy, 31 December 2025

[GraceG]

Hari is a Ph.D. candidate scholastically so he is likely here on a F-1 student Visa. As long as he is still enrolled at a U.S. university recognized by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) he should not be having any visa concerns. Even if graduation is looming as a Ph.D. in what I assume is a STEM course of study (most common for Indian students in the US) he has a number of options for staying here legally. Top US Visa Options For Ph.D. Holders and Students | USAFIS

 

[KBlackRabbit]

MOO: I gently suggest this reads like mania. Into the Wild he went.
My heart hurts for his loved ones.

Alaska is a magnet for people who get romantic ideas about the wild but underestimate what they’re really getting into. One of the Alaska forums I belong to gets lots of Lower 48-ers that ask for advice for building and living in a cabin in the woods in AK. We give them all the same advice: don’t.

Tourists run into trouble all of the time up there and it’s often due to being naive, the same kind of Disney naive where people think it might be cute to pet a Bison in Yellowstone.

 

[Lisbeth_S]

Friends have created a petition on change.org requesting authorities involvement in the search.

Urgent Request for Expanded Multi-State Action to Locate Missing Person Hari Karasani

 

[slowpoke]

This article says he was supposed to return on Jan 1, but then he told his friends in his last call that it would be Jan 3 or 4 instead, because the airfare was too high on that date.

I wonder if the authorities are working on getting his phone records? Did they already check his credit card records?

2 weeks on, no info on missing Telugu student in US | Vijayawada News - The Times of India

Vijayawada: Even after two weeks, there is still no clue about the whereabouts of 24-year-old Telugu student Hari Karasani, who went missing in Alaska.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

 

[GraceG]

This article says he was supposed to return on Jan 1, but then he told his friends in his last call that it would be Jan 3 or 4 instead, because the airfare was too high on that date.

I wonder if the authorities are working on getting his phone records? Did they already check his credit card records?

2 weeks on, no info on missing Telugu student in US | Vijayawada News - The Times of India

Vijayawada: Even after two weeks, there is still no clue about the whereabouts of 24-year-old Telugu student Hari Karasani, who went missing in Alaska.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Two questions come to mind:

Why didn't he purchase a round trip airfare? The round trip fare almost always cheaper.

Why did he check out of the lodge on the 30th if his flight wasn't until the 3rd or 4th. Certainly they weren't "full in the middle of winter and their room rates are cheaper than many hotels around the Fairbanks airport. Was that the day the train was running?

Hopefully LE has his itinerary and has obtained access to his phone records.

 

[Inthedetails]

Hari is a Ph.D. candidate scholastically so he is likely here on a F-1 student Visa. As long as he is still enrolled at a U.S. university recognized by the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) he should not be having any visa concerns. Even if graduation is looming as a Ph.D. in what I assume is a STEM course of study (most common for Indian students in the US) he has a number of options for staying here legally. Top US Visa Options For Ph.D. Holders and Students | USAFIS

I wish we could trust that is true. There are foreign students stressed about the issue. It's such an unknown thing right now, which is all the harder to deal with as they are far from home and largely on their own.

I am hoping for the best with this young man.

jmopinion