The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information about Mayushi Bhagat, a 29-year-old Indian student who went missing from New Jersey over four years ago.
The FBI Newark Field Office and the Jersey City Police Department said in a Dec 14 announcement that authorities continue to seek the public’s help in locating Bhagat, now 29, who was reported missing on May 1, 2019.
Born in India on July 12, 1994, Mayushi was in the US on an F1 student visa and studying at the New York Institute of Technology. She was last seen leaving her Jersey City apartment while wearing colorful pajama pants and a black T-shirt on April 19, 2019.
Bhagat — who “also goes by Mayushi Vikas Bhagat and Mayusi Vikas Bhagat” — is 5 feet 10 inches tall, has black hair, brown eyes, weighs 150 to 160 pounds, and has a medium build,” police said. She speaks English, Hindi, and Urdu, and has friends in South Plainfield, New Jersey.
The $10,000 reward would be provided for information leading to Bhagat’s “location or recovery,” the announcement said.
Anyone with information about Mayushi, her whereabouts or her disappearance, is asked to call the FBI Newark at 973-792-3000, or the Jersey City Police Department at 855-JCP-TIPS (527-8477).
The Times of India reported in 2019 that Bhagat, whose family lives in Vadodara, Gujarat, moved to the US in 2015 to pursue a career in electrical and electronics engineering after graduating from the Vadodara Institute of Engineering.
She attended the University of New Hampshire before transferring to the New York Institute of Technology. Her father Vikas Bhagat told The Times of India that he last spoke with his daughter through WhatsApp on May 1, 2019.
She told him that she was fine, and would not be returning home until May 3, 2019, and didn’t want “to be bothered.”
A GoFundMe page was set up to help Bhagat’s family help to pay legal and investigative fees. The page, which appears to have been updated in December 2019, describes her as “responsible, kind, intelligent, and loves her family, friends, and life.”
“Mayushi is a very capable, independent woman having immigrated to the USA in 2016 to pursue a postgraduate degree in electrical engineering at the New York Institute of Technology. She has been missing since April 29, 2019.
“Her family has not seen or heard from her since, and all police investigations have not led to any conclusive leads. The search for Mayushi has taken an emotional and financial toll on the family including substantial legal and investigative fees.
“We are fundraising to assist Mayushi’s family through these difficult