About year and a half after she went missing while hiking in Japan, the backpack and shoe of Patricia Wu-Murad was found in a stream near the trail she was on, her family says.

In a post in the Facebook group Help Find Pattie, Murphy Murad, the missing Storrs woman's daughter, said her items were found by someone fishing.

"On September 15, a person who was fishing in Totsukawa village found a backpack in a stream," she said. "He found Pattie's email (which is more or less her name) and her family's home address written on a ziplock bag inside the backpack, and he reported it to the Gojo Police Station."

The next day, Murad said, the fisherman led police to the area, where they found the backpack. She said it was mostly empty with the exception of the bag and gravel.

"After a further search of the area around the original site, police also located a single shoe downstream from where the backpack was found," she said. "The items were located in a stream northeast of the Mandokoro guesthouse, where she was last seen."

Murad said the discovery was relayed to her and Kirk Murad, Patricia's husband, on Sept. 16. She said she and her father were able to confirm the items belonged to Patricia, based on a photo she shared with them earlier in her trip to Japan.

"Over the next few days, additional items were found, most of which the family could confirm belonged to Pattie," she said. "There have been no new updates since September 20, however the police have recently released information to local media outlets."

Murad said the family has been in contact with local volunteers who still live in Totsukawa village, as well as members of the U.S. Search and Rescue volunteer group.

Patricia Wu-Murad was reported missing the evening of April 10, 2023, after she failed to show up at the next guesthouse where she was scheduled to stay. She was hiking a mountainous region of Japan and was last seen checking out of a guesthouse the morning of her disappearance.

Wu-Murad's family said local police looked for 72 hours, but were unable to locate her and called off the search.

A GoFundme set up by the family has raised $202,000 as of Sunday afternoon, and was used to hire private search and rescue teams, as well as search helicopters.