Found Deceased JAPAN - Patricia "Pattie" Wu-Murad, 60, US Citizen, on hiking trip Kumano Kodo Trail, didn't arr next stop Osaka, 10 Apr 2023

[neesaki]

“Kirk recalled last contacting his wife April 9, when she texted him a picture of her Easter meal.
“She said (she) was ahead of schedule, and she was going to go on a separate trek, so we might not be able to reach her,” he said.”

Husband of Connecticut mom missing in Japan says search intensifying, involves Japan, US law enforcement

Patricia “Pattie” Wu-Murad was last seen on the morning of April 10.

nypost.com

I’m noting the above quote from the NY Post, and then recalling the statement on the G F M site by the daughter saying that at the Mandokoro guesthouse they found a paper in Pattie’s handwriting that seemed to be an intinerary for the next few days.

Did she discard that paper purposely because she was “going on a separate trek”, instead of her original plan?

JMO

I’ve had questions about the notes found at the hostel. Did she leave them for someone? If not, why did she leave them? I wonder exactly where they were found.

 

[WingsOverTX]

“Kirk recalled last contacting his wife April 9, when she texted him a picture of her Easter meal.
“She said (she) was ahead of schedule, and she was going to go on a separate trek, so we might not be able to reach her,” he said.”

Husband of Connecticut mom missing in Japan says search intensifying, involves Japan, US law enforcement

Patricia “Pattie” Wu-Murad was last seen on the morning of April 10.

nypost.com

I’m noting the above quote from the NY Post, and then recalling the statement on the G F M site by the daughter saying that at the Mandokoro guesthouse they found a paper in Pattie’s handwriting that seemed to be an intinerary for the next few days.

Did she discard that paper purposely because she was “going on a separate trek”, instead of her original plan?

JMO

While I agree her husband's phrasing is open to interpretation & finding the "itinerary" in her handwriting is of interest (maybe they found other items not revealed to the public?), I do not think PM disappeared on purpose nor do I think the family thinks so.

But that's just my opinion.

When you think of all the things that could have happened to a petite, in-shape woman whose last public note at her lodging was celebrating her good fortune in being healthy & who was on the last leg of a weeks-long fulfillment of a dream, choosing to worry her family and friends in a most suspect manner would seem highly out of character.

Again, every possibility is worth contemplation if not active consideration. But unless injured in some way that caused her to have a mental health crisis, I just don't see it.

I would most definitely like her family to find the answer so they can enjoy many more years of adventures with Pattie.

MOO

 

[slowpoke]

While I agree her husband's phrasing is open to interpretation & finding the "itinerary" in her handwriting is of interest (maybe they found other items not revealed to the public?), I do not think PM disappeared on purpose nor do I think the family thinks so.

But that's just my opinion.

When you think of all the things that could have happened to a petite, in-shape woman whose last public note at her lodging was celebrating her good fortune in being healthy & who was on the last leg of a weeks-long fulfillment of a dream, choosing to worry her family and friends in a most suspect manner would seem highly out of character.

Again, every possibility is worth contemplation if not active consideration. But unless injured in some way that caused her to have a mental health crisis, I just don't see it.

I would most definitely like her family to find the answer so they can enjoy many more years of adventures with Pattie.

MOO

I‘m not sure if you’ve misinterpreted my prior post.
I wasn’t thinking she has disappeared herself on purpose. What I meant was that where they’ve been searching may not be where she got lost or injured, as that path was her original planned route and not on this unknown “separate trek”.
JMO

 

[ZaZara]

I am pleasantly surprised to discover that the Kumano Kodo Trail is so very organized. It is efficiënt, practical and you can do all your bookings on-line. The Camino de Santiago in Spain is a friendly chaos in comparison. You can start walking a Camino and you don't have to register anywhere. You can stop whenever you want, go wild or go home... no one cares.

Japan, on the other hand:

Kumano Kodo Tips & Safety｜Tanabe City Kumano Tourism Bureau


Please be aware that just walking up to accommodations is not common in Japan. Pre-booking accommodations is very important and recommended, especially in the mountains for some of the reasons below.

● The Kumano Kodo pilgrimage routes run through an isolated, mountainous region, so planning is important.
● There are limited places to stay along the trail, especially in the smaller settlements.
● Accommodations may be full, or not have food prepared for meals, or sometimes closed if there are no reservations on that date.
● English is not widely spoken, so miscommunications can happen onsite.
● There are limited busses in the evening, which makes it difficult to return to the coast if there is no place to stay.

Planning ahead and making reservations will make your trip smoother, safer and more enjoyable.

You can find out more information and make reservations via the KUMANO TRAVEL Community Reservation System.

Also, you are expected to be on time for dinner, and if you have special dietary requirements, you can add the type of meal of your choice to your reservation.

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is disrespectful to and very difficult for service providers if guests make last-minute dietary needs demands onsite. Please avoid this by making your needs known during the reservation process.

On the plus side of all this planning is that the guest house where Pattie would have been heading immediately reported her missing when she did not turn up. (No one on the Camino missed Denise Thiem until her family in the US became worried because they were no longer getting in touch.)

IMO, even if Pattie had decided to go on a separate trek, she would have booked her accomodation ahead of time and cancelled the other guesthouses if that was necessary.
So unless different (double) reservations for the same days are discovered, we can safely assume that she was on the trail where she planned to be, whether this was her original plan or a detour.

From the same page with Tips & Safety:

Most injuries on the Kumano Kodo are from slips and falls on the stone and root-lined trails. The old cobble steps are particularly slippery when wet.

Please take your time and be careful where you step.

 

[annpats]

I’ve had questions about the notes found at the hostel. Did she leave them for someone? If not, why did she leave them? I wonder exactly where they were found.

I presume they were found in the waste paper basket or trash?

Interesting she was making notes for herself though?
I thought maybe like a hiking diary or log-book maybe? But then why tear-out pages and put them in the trash?
If it were a keepsake or notes to look back on, just cross your bad ideas or changed plans through with a pen.

I wonder if she mentioned anything of it to the Australian man that was staying at the same place?

Of course she could've always changed her mind and decided not to do the wide-trek after all, and that'd make the situation worse as she could be anywhere.

I'd like to know how many different trails led off of that trail she started that morning.

 

[Unalienable Rights]

Maybe leaving her itinerary for the day was intentional. It seems that it would be a smart thing to do, to leave the current day's itinerary behind at each stop, with the intention that if anything went wrong she could be located. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

 

[annpats]

Maybe leaving her itinerary for the day was intentional. It seems that it would be a smart thing to do, to leave the current day's itinerary behind at each stop, with the intention that if anything went wrong she could be located. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

Yes, whether the itinerary was intentionally left behind or not needs to be confirmed. I hope that was the case.

However, she was only supposed to stay on the one trail until the next guesthouse (which was already expecting her) so there wasn't much reason to leave an itinerary. Her next day wasn't a complex trip.

I'd like to hear more from the guesthouse owner as to where these notes/papers were found. Were they left intentionally with him as a plan, or found in the trash?

Also, how long after Pattie left did the Australian man leave the guesthouse?
We know he didn't catch her up, despite him being physically taller and having a much longer stride (Western man vs. Asian women). So that makes me think she left the trail or something happened quite early on, in the first 3 hours or so.

 

[Cedars]

I presume they were found in the waste paper basket or trash?

Interesting she was making notes for herself though?
I thought maybe like a hiking diary or log-book maybe? But then why tear-out pages and put them in the trash?
If it were a keepsake or notes to look back on, just cross your bad ideas or changed plans through with a pen.

I wonder if she mentioned anything of it to the Australian man that was staying at the same place?

Of course she could've always changed her mind and decided not to do the wide-trek after all, and that'd make the situation worse as she could be anywhere.

I'd like to know how many different trails led off of that trail she started that morning.

In my opinion they would have been discarded. Or, less likely, she accidentally left them behind.

Walking many miles daily from place to place for an extended period, carrying everything in a small pack, two things emerge: don't carry anything that isn't essential, and keep it all very tidy. Bits of loose paper, notes that aren't relevent, are jettisoned asap.

Perhaps she'd just written a slightly updated version of her itinerary, extending a couple days past the old one.

In terms of souvenirs, photos, a journal, physical items from places you've visited are souvenirs. Old planning notes are just clutter.

It's so unfortunate something happened to her, and no one knows what. Unfortunately, sometimes all the planning in the world can't prevent that.

JMO

 

[annpats]

It's so unfortunate something happened to her, and no one knows what. Unfortunately, sometimes all the planning in the world can't prevent that.

That is the truth!

The sad thing is, this trail wasn't particularly difficult in terms of temperature, height or terrain.
It was essentially a path through the forest. A bit hilly, but nothing she wouldn't be able to deal with.

That really makes it quite bewildering.

Also if she did have a medical incident, did she disappear into the forest for some privacy? Perhaps that medical incident was more serious than she first thought.

 

[ZaZara]

Pictures from the SAR, from FB Help Find Pattie

Even if the trail itself is a well trodden path, this is no walk in the park. IMO at some places once you go down, you can hardly get up.

 

[WingsOverTX]

Pictures from the SAR, from FB Help Find Pattie

Even if the trail itself is a well trodden path, this is no walk in the park. IMO at some places once you go down, you can hardly get up.

Yes. It is wilderness. So getting off the pilgrim's path is very dangerous. Was PM is shape to do this hike? I think so. But alone without a communication backup for her phone, misadventure could be life-threatening.

This case is so frustrating because of the lack of evidence & clues. I hope they can obtain cell data that helps. They need to determine if she was ever on the 11-mile path she planned to walk.

As we get beyond the two-week mark, it's looking more like a recovery if indeed misadventure has left her stranded & hidden in this beautiful but remote place.

The family keeps focusing on publicity. But that only helps if she went missing in a place where she was likely to have been seen (village, bus road, etc.).

I hope they can find clues to narrow the focus. At a month in with no sign of life, the rescue part will be scaled back without credible clues.

Time is running out.
JMO

 

[annpats]

Pictures from the SAR, from FB Help Find Pattie

Even if the trail itself is a well trodden path, this is no walk in the park. IMO at some places once you go down, you can hardly get up.

These are photos from the SAR teams looking in out-of-reach 'off the trail' places. They need to search these areas as well, but this isn't the actual trail itself, and I doubt Pattie would've headed along this huge boulder-filled dry riverbed.

She had approximately 11 miles to cover that day to get to the next guesthouse, which is quite a fair distance, so she needed to get a move on....I doubt she went messing about on side-trails and other curiosities. Plus, that didn't seem in her nature.

 

[annpats]

The following excerpt below does make the section she was on sound very strenuous.

"Kohechi is the most remote and strenuous route of the four main Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trails. Zigzagging over steep peaks, the route crosses over three mountain passes, reaches over 1,000 meters in elevation, and spans over 65 km (40 mi) in length."

Kumano Kodo: Kohechi Route

This demanding trek is for seasoned hikers only, but gorgeous views and the unearthly Mount Koya are sure to take anyone’s breath away.

travel.gaijinpot.com

 

[slowpoke]

On the Help Find Pattie FB page about 17 hrs ago is a post with a link to someone’s blog who had a text exchange with Pattie before she went missing. This person apparently was someone Pattie knew from the time she did the Camino de Santiago walk.

Based on the exchange, she fully intended to finish the Kumano Kodo walk with the goal of attaining the “Dual Pilgrim” status (for completing both Camino de Santiago and Kumano Kodo). IMO

He asked if she could take a picture of his photo in the glass display table at the “Hongu Taisha Center” as a favor, which is supposed to be there designating his Dual Pilgrim status.

Anyone good at maps? Is this Center along the Kohechi route, or could she have taken a different path in order to reach the Center to do this favor?

(I think we aren’t supposed to link the blog, so that’s why I haven’t. I hope you can locate the post I mean at the Help Find Pattie page. I don’t have a FB account, so I hope my description on how to find the post is helpful enough.)

 

[ZaZara]

On the Help Find Pattie FB page about 17 hrs ago is a post with a link to someone’s blog who had a text exchange with Pattie before she went missing. This person apparently was someone Pattie knew from the time she did the Camino de Santiago walk.

Based on the exchange, she fully intended to finish the Kumano Kodo walk with the goal of attaining the “Dual Pilgrim” status (for completing both Camino de Santiago and Kumano Kodo). IMO

He asked if she could take a picture of his photo in the glass display table at the “Hongu Taisha Center” as a favor, which is supposed to be there designating his Dual Pilgrim status.

Anyone good at maps? Is this Center along the Kohechi route, or could she have taken a different path in order to reach the Center to do this favor?

(I think we aren’t supposed to link the blog, so that’s why I haven’t. I hope you can locate the post I mean at the Help Find Pattie page. I don’t have a FB account, so I hope my description on how to find the post is helpful enough.)

The Hongu Taisha Center is in the center of several trails. It looks like they meet there. A bit like Santiago de Compostela.

Kumano Kodo｜Tanabe City Kumano Tourism Bureau

 

[acutename]

These are photos from the SAR teams looking in out-of-reach 'off the trail' places. They need to search these areas as well, but this isn't the actual trail itself, and I doubt Pattie would've headed along this huge boulder-filled dry riverbed.

She had approximately 11 miles to cover that day to get to the next guesthouse, which is quite a fair distance, so she needed to get a move on....I doubt she went messing about on side-trails and other curiosities. Plus, that didn't seem in her nature.

I agree with all this but maybe she needed more water? That might make a person leave the trail- she seems from all the information to be smart and a planner, so I am perplexed that she did not leave clues IMO. Was the AUS hiker who did not see her her supposed to be going on the exact same route? - does anybody know?

 

[neesaki]

On the Help Find Pattie FB page about 17 hrs ago is a post with a link to someone’s blog who had a text exchange with Pattie before she went missing. This person apparently was someone Pattie knew from the time she did the Camino de Santiago walk.

Based on the exchange, she fully intended to finish the Kumano Kodo walk with the goal of attaining the “Dual Pilgrim” status (for completing both Camino de Santiago and Kumano Kodo). IMO

He asked if she could take a picture of his photo in the glass display table at the “Hongu Taisha Center” as a favor, which is supposed to be there designating his Dual Pilgrim status.

Anyone good at maps? Is this Center along the Kohechi route, or could she have taken a different path in order to reach the Center to do this favor?

(I think we aren’t supposed to link the blog, so that’s why I haven’t. I hope you can locate the post I mean at the Help Find Pattie page. I don’t have a FB account, so I hope my description on how to find the post is helpful enough.)

I’ve been looking for the last 10 minutes and can’t find that FB post .

 

[annpats]

Was the AUS hiker who did not see her her supposed to be going on the exact same route? - does anybody know?

Yes, they had planned to meet up afterwards. Perhaps he was scheduled to have a room at the next guesthouse too? (That would make sense if they were doing the same trail and it was the only guesthouse that way.)
They could meet up there in the evening after they had both finished.

Interestingly, from the photos, he looks like a tall-ish Western man, she a small Asian woman.....he would have a bigger stride and faster pace, yet he didn't catch her up. Even if he left an hour or two after she did, he would've caught her up at some point. But he didn't.

That makes me think whatever happened to Pattie happened quite early on.

 

[neesaki]

The comment at the end of the article, 4th one down, basically saying Japan is not as safe as everyone thinks.

Retired Connecticut woman vanishes during hiking trip in Japan

Patricia 'Pattie' Wu-Murad, of Storrs, Connecticut was last seen April 10 while on a solo expedition through the mountainous region of Japan

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[slowpoke]

I’ve been looking for the last 10 minutes and can’t find that FB post .

I’m sorry I made it difficult to find. I went and read the WS rules and think it’s ok to post the blog link after all.

WS says: “Regarding Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and other social networking or blog websites: Links may be used to direct posters to view something on a social networking page. But postings on social networking sites are not considered fact; they are rumor.”

So, here’s the link to the gentleman who says he heard from Pattie via text prior to her going missing:

Shocked and Very Saddened - Kumano Kodo 2015 Dual Pilgrim Update

This is an incredibly difficult blog post to write. I am feeling very worried and extremely sad concerning the recent developments regarding...

caminolongwalk.blogspot.com