Paul Kochu went to Smokey Joe's in Pittsburgh PA with his roommates on the evening of December 16, 2014. He has not been seen or heard from since.
An image of the 22-year-old intensive care nurse was captured that same night showing him on foot and apparently alone. Wherever Kochu was headed though, he never got there.
Family members who viewed that surveillance tape said the young man's hand appeared to be wrapped in a towel and his gait was strange. They worry Kochu may also have sustained a head injury during a night out that has now become a total mystery.
His roommates contend that Kochu left the packed bar without them around midnight, but later called there to report he'd sliced his hand on broken glass. The two then allegedly returned to the apartment they share so to assist their friend with a cut they describe as "not bad enough to require him to go to the hospital for stitches."
Thereafter they went out once more, they say -- this time leaving Kochu behind -- to see if they could get some food, but he was "gone" by the time they got back. The missing man had taken his keys, cell phone and wallet with him, but not his vehicle.
Kochu recently graduated from the nursing program at Duquesne University and works in the intensive care unit at Allegheny General Hospital,. He did not show up for his scheduled morning shift on December 18th, something which his father, Jack Kochu, insists is highly unusual and troubling.
"It is 199-percent uncharacteristic of Paul not to be where he was
supposed to be," he said. "He's wanted to be a nurse the last six years.
There is absolutely, positively, no way he would miss work."
"He is not impetuous, he's not a reckless person," Kochu's mother, Ellen added. "And there's no rhyme or reason to how or why he disappeared that night."
Paul Kochu, 22, is approximately 6-feet tall and 180 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes. Anyone with information is asked to call the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Missing Persons Unit at (412) 323-7141. A $20,000 reward is additionally being offered for help in solving his case.
Eponymous Rox
