Hyderabad: Salomie Rani, an American of Indian origin, visited Hyderabad with her husband three weeks ago for some paperwork. The elderly couple stayed at a relative’s place in Secunderabad. The day before they were to travel back to New York, however, Salomie disappeared.
On October 1, Salomie and her cousin visited her sister in Ameerpet. At around 7 pm, Salomie went missing. “Aunt Rani and my mother-in-law were standing next to Ameerpet bus stop, waiting for our car,” Moses, Salomie’s niece’s husband, said. “All of a sudden, my aunt vanished from my mother-in-law’s sight. We searched every nook and corner of Ameerpet, checked every bus, every auto at the stop, every busy and lonely stretch. We couldn’t trace aunty. The hunt lasted for three days.”
The family posted Salomie’s photos on social media for help. They informed the police. False information came of her at Hitech City and Jubilee Hills. The family went berserk. On the morning of October 4, the family received a phone call from a boy from the city outskirts. He had found her.
She had taken the wrong bus hoping to reach Karimnagar where her in-laws stay, Salomie apparently told the boy. With four dollars and Rs 40 in hand, she couldn’t go far. She got down halfway and started to walk until she was found by a few villagers on October 1 and lived with them since.
“She was walking aimlessly around the village,” the boy, whose name remains unknown, told the family. “Some boys noticed her and took her to a female sarpanch, who found an Andhra Bank passbook in Salomie’s possession. From it, they traced her address.”
Salomie had apparently been distracted by domestic worries back in the US, and this caused the lapse of attention and the disappearance. “Vattippally village took good care of Aunt Salomie,” Moses’ wife Shalini said. “They let her stay until they called us. We are grateful to the villagers. The police also helped in tracing her.”
How did Salomie react to being found? “She hasn’t expressed any emotion nor have we questioned her much,” Shalini said. “We are happy we found her. The entire family rushed to Vattipally to bring her home. I thank all well-wishers on social media who showed concern.”
