TEMPE, Ariz. — A final-year Arizona State University student who was set to graduate this week went missing Saturday, leaving his family searching for answers after traveling from India to celebrate the milestone. As of Friday, Tempe police say he has been found safe.
Twenty-two-year-old Ansh Arora was last seen in Tempe around 5 p.m. Saturday and was reported missing to police the following morning, according to family members and authorities.
Arora’s parents said they last spoke with their son shortly before boarding a flight from San Francisco to Phoenix on Saturday evening. They expected him to pick them up at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport after they landed around 9 p.m., but they were unable to reach him.
“We landed at the airport fully expecting, and, you know, eager to meet Ansh, to hug him, to tell him how much we love him and how proud we are of him, and simply, as soon as we landed and switched our phones on, there was absolutely no way to contact,” said Meghna Arora, Ansh’s mother.
“At first we just were bewildered as to what has happened,” she said. “I mean, how could we just lose contact? We thought probably he was playing a joke on us or planning to surprise us. That was our initial reaction.”
Meghna Arora said the final conversation with her son focused on airport logistics.
“We just said that we are about to board the flight for Phoenix, and since there seems to be some issue with the luggage, just to track our luggage and help us,” she said. “And he said, ‘No problem. I’ll pick you up, and I’ll help you do that.’ So that was the last communication. It was short and simple, because it was more the logistics.”
Arora had spent the last several years studying supply chain management at Arizona State University. His family said he had made the dean’s list twice and built a close circle of friends during his time in Arizona.
Friends told 12News they had not noticed anything unusual before his disappearance.
“We didn’t see anything abnormal with him,” one friend said. “He was joyous as usual, nothing different than what we would normally see with other people. Yeah, I don’t know what happened.”
The Tempe Police Department investigated the incident and said on Friday that Ansh was found safe and reunited with his family.
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