Paul Kochu’s family waited until he missed his scheduled 7 a.m. shift at Allegheny General Hospital on Thursday before converging on Pittsburgh to look for him.
“He was very excited about getting that job,” said Jack Kochu, Paul’s father, about his son’s nursing position in the Intensive Care Unit. “When we found out that Paul didn’t clock in to work, that’s all we needed to know.”
The official search for the missing 22-year-old South Side man entered its third day on Saturday with his family convening a search party of dozens to comb about a 20-block area. Jack Kochu, a resident of Pottstown in Montgomery County, said between 70 and 100 people walked along the river from 37th to 10th street and covered that area “from the river to the hills.”
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“We were walking down the darker alleyways, looking in secluded areas,” he said. “We had some people by the river. We had some people go to the homeless towns under the bridges, we had several groups knocking on doors.”
A mix of people joined a search, including Paul’s co-workers at the hospital, friends from Duquesne University where he studied nursing and played baseball, family members from New Jersey and Ohio and people who simply wanted to help. They continued to distribute stacks of flyers drawn up by Jack and Paul’s sister Jessica Kochu, 29, who lives in Los Angeles, and arrived in Pittsburgh on Thursday.
The group met Saturday at the corner of Wharton and 22nd streets on the South Side, where one of Paul Kochu’s co-workers from the hospital brought sandwiches and boxes of hot coffee from Panera Bread.
He was last heard from Tuesday at 1:30 a.m.,his family said, when he sent a text to his roommate. He has no history of drug abuse or mental health problems, his father said.
“He is one of the most well-adjusted men I’ve ever met,” Jack Kochu said. “He was very excited about coming home for Christmas. He had absolutely no reason to leave and not come back.”
Despite coming up empty after about four hours of searching, however, he remained optimistic.
“We just haven’t found the right bush yet,” he said.
The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Missing Persons Unit is currently investigating the disappearance. The family has offered a reward of $7,500 for any information that could lead to finding him.
