A US woman who was declared legally dead after disappearing more than three decades ago has turned up alive in Puerto Rico, her family and police have said.
Patricia Kopta, now 83, had last been seen in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1992 when investigators began looking into her disappearance.
She was known to be an “eccentric” street preacher who went by the name “Sparrow”, Ross Township Deputy Police Chief Brian Kohlhepp said on Friday.
Mrs Kopta, who has dementia, has been living in a nursing home after she was taken in as a “person in need” seven years after she disappeared.
‘It’s a relief she hasn’t been murdered’
Her husband Bob Kopta said he had been married to Mrs Kopta for 20 years before she went missing.
He said: “It’s a relief knowing that she’s not laying in a ditch somewhere, or murdered somewhere.”
The 86-year-old added that his family suspected she may be in Puerto Rico but she was declared dead around 25 years ago.
The retired electrician also said he had consulted with a psychic about her whereabouts.
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Mrs Kopta has two sisters – a twin, who died six years ago, and a younger sister who was relieved to learn she’s still alive, Mr Kopta added.
He said he has experienced a range of emotions over the years but is content knowing his wife is alive and being cared for.
“After 30 years, you try to forget about it. Now I can forget about it. We know what happened, and she is taken care of now,” he said.
Image: Patricia Kopta has turned up alive in Puerto Rico more than 30 years after she went missing
Mrs Kopta ‘feared she was going to be institutionalised’
Mr Kopta said his wife had worked as an elevator operator at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh before she vanished.
Before her disappearance, US-based doctors at a mental health facility had diagnosed Mrs Kopta with “delusions of grandeur” and said she had signs of schizophrenia.
But Mrs Kopta was released from the facility and kept preaching until she disappeared, her family said.
Mr Kohlhepp has said police believe Mrs Kopta fled the country because she was “concerned she was going to be institutionalised”.
She is thought to have regularly wandered around Puerto Rico’s northern towns of Naranjito, Corozal and Toa Alta, located just southwest of the capital of San Juan, during her time on the island.
Mrs Kopta had kept details about her life secret when she ended up in a nursing home but began divulging information as the years passed.
Last year she revealed information which caused a social worker at the nursing home to contact authorities in Pennsylvania about her identity.
Image: Bob Kopta has said he suspected his wife might be in Puerto Rico
‘She just loved the ocean’
Mrs Kopta suggested that she had arrived in Puerto Rico on a cruise ship from Europe when she first arrived at the home, police said.
However, her family has said she was in fact a straight-A student in the US, who became a model and dance instructor.
After graduating high school, she worked in finance at a Pittsburgh plate glass company and would attend ballroom dancing events weekly, according to her family.
Mrs Kopta’s younger sister, Gloria Smith, now 78, has said her sister vacationed often in Puerto Rico with friends before she got married.
“She just loved the ocean, the beach, the warm sunshine.”
Ms Smith said she hopes to visit her sister, even though her mental state has declined.
“Whether she knows me or not, I still want to see her and give her a hug and tell her I love her,” Ms Smith said.
Buckingham Palace previously only said the visit would happen “when diaries allow”, but Mr Trump told reporters on Thursday: “I think they are setting a date for September.”
“I don’t know how it can be bigger than the last one,” he said.
“The last one was incredible, but they say the next one will be even more important.”
Image: Sir Keir Starmer handed Trump the invite earlier this year. Pic: PA
Mr Trump will become the only elected political leader in modern times to be invited to two state visits by a British monarch.
The president called the UK a “great country” in his comments at the White House on Thursday and said it was “an honour to be a friend of King Charles and the family, William”.
His first state visit was in 2019, when he was hosted by the late Queen.
Second-term US presidents who have already made a state visit usually get tea or lunch with the monarch at Windsor Castle, as was the case for George W Bush and Barack Obama.
Image: The president was hosted by the Queen in June 2019. Pic: Reuters
But Mr Trump is set to get all the pomp and ceremony laid on again in his honour – with another state banquet likely at Buckingham Palace.
The Royal Family‘s soft power diplomacy is viewed as a way of currying favour with the president, who’s known for his love of the monarchy and links to the UK through his mother, who was born on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland.
It comes as the government seeks an economic deal with the US, in the hope of potentially lessening the impact of the president’s tariffs.
Four people are in hospital as police deal with an active shooter on a university campus in Florida.
Videos showed people running through traffic, fleeing the scene, around the time of the shooting at the student union at Florida State University’s campus in Tallahassee.
Local police were “on the scene or on the way”, according to an alert sent out by the school and students have been told to “shelter in place”.
The FBI is also said to be responding to the incident.
Image: Florida State University students wait for news amid an active shooter incident at the school.
Pic: AP/Kate Payne
In a statement, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare said it was “actively receiving and caring for patients” from the incident.
“At this time, details are still unfolding, and we do not yet have specific information to share. However, we want to assure the community that our teams are fully mobilised and prepared to provide the highest level of care and support to all those affected,” it added.
President Donald Trump said he was fully briefed on the incident and described it as “a shame”.
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He added: “It’s a horrible thing. Horrible that things like this take place.”
Florida governor Ron DeSantis, in a statement posted on X, said: “Our prayers are with our FSU family and state law enforcement is actively responding.”
Ambulances, fire trucks and police vehicles raced to the campus around midday local time (5pm UK time) on Thursday.
As students streamed away from the area of the student union in their hundreds, some were visibly emotional and others were glued to their phones.
Dozens later gathered near the university’s music school, waiting for news.
Florida State University student Daniella Streety told NBC News of the chaos that unfolded at the scene.
She remained on lockdown in a campus building and said: “I did see them carry out one student in what looked like on a stretcher and kept them in the road until an ambulance was able to pick them up.”
Joshua Sirmans, 20, was in the university’s main library when he said alarms began going off warning of an active shooter.
Police escorted him and other students out of the library with their hands over their heads, he said.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
A US federal judge has warned that he could hold the Trump administration in contempt for violating his orders to turn around planes carrying deportees to El Salvador.
US District Judge James E. Boasberg said he had found “probable cause” to hold the administration in criminal contempt and warned he could refer the matter for prosecution if it does not “purge” its contempt.
If the government doesn’t purge the contempt, charges could be brought forward by the Justice Department, NBC News reported.
And if the executive-led Justice Department refused to prosecute the matter, Judge Boasberg said he would appoint another attorney to prosecute the contempt.
Mr Boasberg said the administration could “purge contempt by returning those who were sent to El Salvador prison, in violation of his order, to the US.
This, he said, “might avail themselves of their right to challenge their removability”.
“The Constitution does not tolerate wilful disobedience of judicial orders – especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it,” the judge wrote.
Executive vs judicial
This marks a notable escalation in the ongoing tensions between the judicial and executive branches of the US government during Donald Trump’s second term.
Parts of the US president’s legislative programme have been halted by judges, as the administration strains against the restraints of the separation of powers.
Mr Trump previously called for Judge Boasberg to be impeached while the Justice Department claimed he overstepped his authority – both reflecting the administration’s attempts to overcome perceived obstacles to the implementation of its agenda.
Mr Trump’s administration has also argued it did not violate any orders.
It claimed the judge didn’t include a turnaround directive in his written order and said the planes had already left the US by the time the order came down.
‘Administrative error’
At the heart of the legal wrangling is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who was sent to El Salvador by the Trump administration in March despite an immigration court order preventing his deportation.
Washington acknowledged that Mr Garcia was deported due to an “administrative error”.
The US Supreme Court has called on the administration to facilitate his return, upholding a court order by Judge Paula Xinis, but Trump officials have claimed that Mr Garcia has ties to the MS-13 gang.
Image: Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Pic: CASA/AP
Mr Garcia’s lawyers have argued there is no evidence of this.
This all comes after El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele visited the White House earlier this week.
During his time with Mr Trump, Mr Bukele said that he would not return Mr Garcia, likening it to smuggling “a terrorist into the United States.”
Image: The US and El Salvador presidents in the Oval Office.
Pic: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
Along with Mr Garcia, the Trump administration has deported hundreds of people, mostly Venezuelans, whom it claims are gang members without presenting evidence and without a trial.
Democrat senator travels to El Salvador
Meanwhile, Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen arrived in El Salvador on Wednesday, saying he would seek a meeting with the country’s officials to secure Mr Garcia’s release.
“I just arrived in San Salvador a little while ago and look forward to meeting with the US embassy team to discuss Mr. Abrego Garcia’s release,” Mr Van Hollen said on social media.
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