USA Unsolved 12 (AZ) - Hoi Kei Patricia Woo

**Jessica** (0:02)
Hello, and thank you for returning to the USA Unsolved segment where we look into unsolved cases involving the Asian community in the United States. Today's case may be one of the most recent cases I have covered so far as it took place in April of 2025 And of course, it is still ongoing. This is the ongoing missing persons case of a woman from Hong Kong who went missing in Arizona and despite efforts from friends, family, and the police, nothing has yet turned up. Her name is Hoi Kei Woo, and also known as Patricia Woo. Let's begin. Between the years 2015 and 2019, Patricia was a student studying to become a pharmacist at the Chinese University in Hong Kong, where she's originally from. She applied for an exchange student program in 2018 and found herself traveling halfway across the world to the University of Arizona. Like many others who go through this process, she found the exchange program not only fulfilling, but also ended up falling in love with the location. She met many people who became her friends and were more than supportive, so upon graduating, she decided she wanted to return to Arizona. This time, she applied for the Master of Science in Business Analytics program at the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona. After 16 months, she graduated and obtained her Master's degree in Business Analytics in December of 2024 Not only that, she eventually married her then-boyfriend, whom she met while attending the university. Not a lot is known about her husband for some reason, and in most articles, he is not even named. I managed to find his name in one post, and he appears to be of Chinese descent based on his name, and the fact that the two got married in China. After graduating in 2024, Patricia began work as a lab research assistant at the university, and has also worked hard to obtain multiple certificates in the realm of tech and AI.
At the time of her disappearance, she was living in Tucson, Arizona.
But what happened to Patricia? Details on her disappearance seem to be all on the same page, but the information and details seem pretty limited. She was last seen on April 18, 2025 She allegedly told her husband that she needed to get out of the house for some fresh air. Perhaps, she had been working a lot and just needed some time to clear her mind. Some have speculated the reason for her needing to get out of the house, but let's put that aside for now and focus on the facts. After telling her husband she was leaving for a drive, she was never seen again. As it is in most cases, her not returning home and not being in touch was out of character, so her disappearance was quickly noted, and she was reported missing the following day on April 19th. The police immediately got involved and began the search for Patricia, and on April 20th, her car, a white Volkswagen SUV, was found parked at Mount Lemmon's Windy Point on Catalina Highway. For those unfamiliar, Windy Point Vista is a popular spot to escape the Arizona heat and to see the views as it sits around 7,000 feet in elevation.
This location is about an hour's drive from Tucson, so not really a place you would go for a quick drive for some quick head clearing. Unfortunately, none of her friends had any explanation as to why she ended up there. Perhaps Patricia really needed a change of scenery. Perhaps she really liked the peace and quiet. Either way, her car was found there, and not just that, her purse and her phone were also left in the car. That is definitely odd, as it is not only dangerous to leave valuables in the car, it is also uncommon to be detached from your phone in modern days. Despite this, no further clues were uncovered at the scene and no sign of foul play was detected. The police did their duty and began to search the area around Windy Point Vista. But after 6 days, the search was officially called off, as the Pima County Sheriff's Department stated that, they have exhausted all resources in their efforts. Sheriff Chris Nanos also went on to explain, we went through everything in that vehicle. We have worked closely with her husband and her family on this. When searching in the wild, everything becomes a lot more treacherous and unpredictable. The terrain is very challenging, no doubt, and various other departments became involved due to the location. The Forest Service, Forest Rangers, and the Southern Arizona Rescue Association had all joined in. As their search turned up nothing, they then turned to the public for assistance. Patricia's family and friends have also come forward to plead with the public to assist. One of Patricia's close friends from the university, Beverly Gordon, had come forward expressing sadness. Quote, she was just a really nice person to be around, and she was so excitable, like she just got excited about everything. Unquote. I hate to put it this way, but on the surface, Patricia's case may seem as a run of the mill missing persons case. A few things, though, do stand out to me about this case. First off, and I don't think it's just me, but many people seem to think this case became one of the quietest investigations they've ever come across in Pima County. Granted, I don't know how many ongoing cases the county is handling or handles on average, but I am kind of surprised as well that this case never made it to my radar. I only found this case by scouring various pages on Google News articles and typing words like Missing Asian Person and Unsolved Asian Crimes Plus the State. And I admit, I do that pretty regularly. A few commenters on Facebook have pointed out that the public and community seem to be a lot more invested and involved in the search than the Sheriff's Office, and the fact that officials called off the search just after six days did not sit well with them. Patricia's friends and families have actually reached out to private investigators as well for assistance, and while helpful, this step should definitely not be used to replace police work. Another thing that was brought up, where is Patricia's husband in all of this? I was unable to find whether her husband was interviewed or not, as he was barely mentioned, but I would assume that he would have been the first person to be looked into, seeing as he is the spouse. Perhaps, he was never a suspect or a person of interest. I don't want to ruin a man's reputation for no reason, so I will just leave it at that. But the lack of reporting on his stance has definitely raised a few eyebrows in the community. Another question is, what was Patricia doing at Windy Point Vista? Like I said, this was not a quick little drive from her house. It was out of the way, about an hour from Tucson. Sure, she may have just wanted to get a bit further out into nature. But if foul play was involved, could someone have seen her there by herself and took her by surprise, aka a crime of opportunity? Or could she have planned on meeting someone there and that someone did something, accidentally or not, but isn't coming forward? And as much as I don't want this to be true, could she have also taken her own life? Nothing indicating suicide was found anywhere, as in no note, no indication based on her behavior. Of course, there may not be clear indication on these kind of situations, but if this was the case, I would have expected the search to have yielded something. Or perhaps they were not looking in the right place.