Moparti, visiting from India, had stayed in California for a month.
AB Wire
It’s a mystery that has baffled authorities and family alike: Prasad Moparti, 55, who was visiting from India and been in the country for about a month, last weekend attended his daughter’s wedding reception in California, enjoying even a dance, then went out for a walk, and never came back. Authorities have now given up search for him.
Authorities ended the Delta search last Tuesday for Moparti, who went missing after his daughter’s wedding at Grand Island Mansion in Walnut Grove.
The announcement by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department came roughly 72 hours after Moparti was reported missing, reported the Sacramento Bee.
The Sheriff’s spokesman Tony Turnbull said there was no “suspicious circumstances or foul play leading to his disappearance.”
In a prepared statement, Turnbull said Moparti was considered a voluntary missing person but considering his lack of familiarity with the area and history of depression, the department used “all resources available in attempts to locate him.”
“Family members … indicated Moparti suffered from depression, and that he showed indicators of his depression leading up to the wedding,” the Sheriff’s Department stated in news release.
That contradicts the picture painted earlier Tuesday by daughter Durga Moparti, 29, who got married to Rajesh Gutta. She could not be reached after the search was suspended.
“Our dad was really very happy. He was dancing. He was really joyful,” she told reporters hours before the search was called off.
She said her father, an avid walker who manages apartments in the city of Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, danced at the party Friday and enjoyed the ceremony Saturday. She said as people were packing to leave the mansion on Saturday afternoon, Prasad Moparti told a family member that he was going for a short walk, reported the Bee.
When he didn’t come back, she said the family searched for 10 miles before calling the police. Moparti is about 5 feet, 10 inches tall and 180 pounds and dressed in traditional Indian attire when last seen. The family posted fliers from Isleton to Rio Vista.
Last Saturday and Sunday, searchers from the Sheriff’s Department, California Highway Patrol and Coast Guard units meticulously combed the shores as the bride’s family circulated the fliers. On Monday, a CHP plane searched by air while a sheriff’s dog attempted to pick up a scent.
“We’ve done just about everything imaginable,” Deputy Dave Kirby said before the search was called off.
Earlier Tuesday, Durga Moparti said that she could not comprehend a scenario in which her father would vanish. He does not have his passport or money, she said. Moparti had been in the United States for about a month.
“The only indication that we had was that he had been idle” since arriving in the U.S., she said, reported the Bee. “He was a workaholic back in India and was managing several projects. He was bored.”
Durga Moparti told the station KVOR: “It sounded like he was a little…depressed, and he wanted to go back to India.”
Moparti’s husband, Rajesh Gutta, said his father-in-law had ‘not been doing well’ lately, reported the Daily Mail. After taking part in the nuptials and posing for pictures with the beaming bride and groom, Moparti told his new son-in-law he was going out for a stroll.
He was last seen at around 4pm Saturday walking at a fast pace along Grand Island Road. Neighbors say they saw Moparti making his way toward a nearby bridge. He has not been seen or heard from since.
The newlyweds have postponed their honeymoon to San Francisco and are busy scouring the area around the mansion and handing out ‘missing’ posters.