Tempe police said Ansh Arora was found safe on May 15, ending a missing-person case that had drawn attention online after friends said he had stopped replying to messages and did not pick up his parents at the airport. His family later told detectives they had reunited with him and that he is safe.
Arora, 22, had been reported missing on May 10. Police said a report on him was assigned to a detective on the afternoon of May 14, and officers had tried contacting him but were unable to do so. Police did not release further details about how he was found.
The case spread across social media, where flyers seeking information listed Arora as a 22-year-old South Asian man who was 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighed 120 pounds, and had black hair and brown eyes. The flyers said he was a supply chain management undergraduate student in his final year and lived in Tempe. Tempe police provided the public with the phone number 480-350-8311 for information, while social media flyers listed 503-841-0924.
Police also said Arora did not meet the criteria for entry into the National Crime Information Center’s system as a missing person, a detail that became part of the public discussion as people online shared his image and tried to help track him down. The case came as another Arizona State University student, Sandarsh Krishna, was being mourned after his body was recovered at Grand Canyon National Park, adding to the sense of unease around the local student community.
For Arora’s family, the outcome was simple and immediate: he is back with them and safe. The remaining question, one police have not answered, is how he was located after days of uncertainty and concern.
