Lost and (not) Found

Losing a loved one without knowing what happened to them is a never-ending agony—a breed of anger, hysteria, and helplessness all in one gulp of tragedy. On the edge between existing and non-existing, the people who lost their families can never live properly. Here are four people in different parts of the world and a different times. Omar, Citra, Patricia, and Oto went missing. Some of them came home, others remained lost and never to be seen again.

Omar The Algeria

On the way to his vocational school, in Jalfah, Algeria, Omar, 19, didn’t realize that on that day, year of 1996 was his last day his family would see him for the next couple of decades. 

Omar bin Omran was born in a family of nine siblings. He was the seventh sibling to grew up in an environment of the Muhajidins during the Algeria civil War in the 1990’s. When his family realized the 19-year old Omar didn’t come home, they suspected Omar was being abducted by the Jalfah’s revolutionary military group. They started to conduct a search in that area, but came back empty-handed. Omar was nowhere to be found. Around 200.000 people had died in that time which the people of Algeria called it The Black Decade. After years passed by, Omar’s family started to lose hope. They believed that Omar isn’t just lost, but he was murdered by one of the rebel groups. 

Behold of Thy Neighbour

It wasn’t until the sister of the abductor posted Omar’s picture in social media due to an inheritance dispute that made police investigate the man’s house. Omar was found 200 meters away and kept in a neighbour’s cellar with haystacks for nearly 26 years.

“The Djelfa Attorney General’s Office informs the public that on May 12 2024 at 8pm local time, it found victim Omar bin Omran, aged 45, in the cellar of his neighbour, BA, aged 61,” prosecutors said.

The 61-year old abductor lived alone. He was working as a civil servant and had been considered strange to his neighbors. He was also mysterious man suspected to have killed Omar’s dog. Omar was found shivering and having difficulties to speak, emerging from the haystacks after being helped to get out from the cellar. Later on, Omar claimed all those years he felt powerless even to call for help because of the ‘mantra’ the abductor had cast on him.

Sadly his mother never saw Omar again as she had passed away on 2013.

Mrs.Kopta : The Lost Sparrow

Patricia Kopta was a lady living in Pittsburgh, known as The Sparrow. The nickname comes from her thin-sized-feature that keeps reappearing in North Pittsburg’s parking lots and busy roads. She preached to random strangers about the end of the world. 

Back in the days where she was young, Patricia was a straight-A student, who then tried modelling and became a dance instructor. Her family said, even when she graduated high school, Patricia was still going to ballroom dancing events. 

In 1992, Patricia suddenly disappeared. Her husband Bob Kopta and her sister, Gloria Smith filed a police report that day. A Pensylvanian woman, in her early 50’s tall and slender didn’t come home. 

Before missing, Patricia were having migraines and ended up resigning from her job at the glass company. The doctor said it was because of stress. Then, she applied a vacancy as an elevator operator at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. This is where Patricia started to act peculiar.

She confessed that she has seen an angel, and that’s when the preaching begins. Patricia was sent to mental institution with diagnosis of delusions of grandeur. Further on, a symptoms of schizophrenia. She was finally released from the hospital but keep preaching on the streets of Pittsburgh. She showed up especially when there’s an event or a baseball game going on and a handful of people all around. But not for long, in 1992 Patricia Kopta disappeared. Bob Kopta, her husband for 20 years said he went home that night and she wasn’t there.

Puerto Rico

A year passed. Two years, still no signs of Patricia Kopta. On the seventh year Bob received her death declaration. Nearly 30 years later, Patricia The Sparrow was found in a nursing home care, in San Juan. She had been living there since 1999, after her long stroll wandering here and there led her to Puerto Rico. A beautiful memory of a place she used to go, back in her early days of vacation. She roam the streets and followed her happy, familiar paths. 

Taken to the nursing home, Kopta remained quiet about her past, said that she had arrived in Puerto Rico via a cruise ship from Europe. Later on, Patricia suffered from severe dimentia. Knowing her discovery to be true and confirmed with a DNA sample from Pennsylvania police, Bob Kopta, 78-year old did not intend on making a visit. Nevertheless, he relieved to know she was being taken care of. Bob said that when a wife is lost, a husband is a potential suspect for the police and society. Though Bob remained to be alone, he just wanted to let the past stays where they are ; “She could have come home at any time. She always said she wanted to go to a warm climate.”

Lost and not found in Indonesia

Bob hair. 

Smiling eyes. 

A mark or a healed-scar above one of her eyelid, a shade lighter than her skin. I forgot which side it is. 

That was the first time I saw Citra in junior high school in Jakarta. She was a new kid who had just been transferred to an 8th-grade class in the middle of the first semester.
Friendly and calm is how I remembered Citra. She had her own nature of an easy-going person. Weeks later both of us went rollerblading at an equastrian parking lot near my house. She was ultimately a pro, but didn’t make me feel intimidated, because of how she made everything to be just having fun. Her giggly tone didn’t send a single impression of a smug. After a few months, we’ve grown our separate ways. In College, I met Citra again but we were taking different majors, hence different classes, and different campus buildings, so we didn’t see each other that much. 

A year later after we graduated, I found horrifying news. Citra is missing. The office where she was working called and questioned Zulhan, her boyfriend about her whereabouts, since she didn’t show up for the work meeting that morning, on Friday, 23rd December 2005, without any notice.

Broken phone

Her phone was at the service center that time, so it was unable to reach. In the afternoon, Zulhan decided to contact her family’s hometown in a different city. Only to find out that Citra haven’t been home since the previous weekend. No sign of her until late night, Citra’s family decided to confirmed that they had lost a daughter and filed a police report for a missing person. 

There were only signs of ATM withdrawal at the next day on two different locations. A small insignificant amount from her account. But the police did not follow up much further. 13 days, 56 days, a year still nothing.

19 years remembering a lost friend.

Otista, The Lost Starling

Oto Iskandar Dinata, known as Ottista. The Indonesian National Hero who appeared on 20.000 rupiah printed on 2004 were considered dead on 20 December 1945. Oto was a brave man, engaged in several historical organizations before Indonesia’s Independence. During Japanese occupation, he was a director of a revolutionary newspaper,Tjahaja. 

He used to be a teacher that held so many actions and preparations in the years towards Indonesia’s Independence between 1942-1945. Otista was also the man behind the presidential candidate pairing of Soekarno and Moehammad Hatta. He was eventually appointed as the State Security minister by Soekarno. Tragically, at the same year he was abducted by The Black Troops after forming the Society Security Institution or BKR (Badan Keamanan Rakyat). Assumptions were circling on why and how he died. The Black Troops were very dissapointed in Oto. The reasons remain unclear. There were rumours on how BKR was an institution that recruited ex-PETA members combined with the dutch ex-soldiers KNIL. 

According to the trial years later in 1958, one of the black troops member, an ex policeman who were one of the suspects, Mujitaba had testified. He said, Oto was dragged from one jail to a different one outside the region. In his description at that time, Oto was an middle-aged man, slightly tall in pants and suit wearing a hat. Oto was stabbed in the side of his neck near Mauk coast in Lembang, West Java. His remains were never to be found until this day. Ottista or they called as Jalak Harupat, the brave starling—left twelve children. 

Bibliography

Patricia Kopta, Pittsburgh woman missing for over 30 years, found alive in Puerto Rico: “Total shock” – CBS News. (2023, March 3). Retrieved June 13, 2024, from www.cbsnews.com website: https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/patricia-kopta-pittsburgh-woman-missing-1992-found-alive-puerto-rico/

12 Hari Citra Hilang,Keluarga Pasrah. (2006, January 3). Retrieved June 13, 2024, from detiknews website: https://news.detik.com/berita/d-511140/12-hari-citra-hilang-keluarga-pasrah

Aldroubi, M., & Mbarek, G. B. (2024, May 16). Omar bin Omran: Algerian man found alive in cellar after more than 25 years. Retrieved June 13, 2024, from The National website: https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2024/05/16/algerian-man-hole-found/

[balita-anda] Full story Missing Person. (n.d.). Retrieved June 13, 2024, from www.mail-archive.com website: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg102643.html

antaranews.com. (2024, February 14). Menyingkap fakta seputar pembunuhan Oto “Si Jalak Harupat.” Retrieved June 13, 2024, from Antara News website: https://www.antaranews.com/berita/3962922/menyingkap-fakta-seputar-pembunuhan-oto-si-jalak-harupat

Andryanto, S. D. (2021, December 20). Misteri Kematian Otto Iskandar Dinata, Jenazah yang Tak Pernah Ditemukan. Retrieved June 13, 2024, from Tempo website: https://nasional.tempo.co/read/1541250/misteri-kematian-otto-iskandar-dinata-jenazah-yang-tak-pernah-ditemukan

The Haptic Room is supported by our readers. Our site may contain links to affiliate websites, and if you make a purchase through these links, we receive a commission to support our site.