A University of Minnesota student traveling alone in India has been found after missing for 48 hours and an intense international search effort.
Elizabeth Mann, 20, of Hastings, was last seen at around 5 a.m. Thursday at Bunkd Hostels in Anjuna, a costal village in Goa in the southwestern part of the country. She had been staying there since Oct. 24 and was looking forward to attending a yoga retreat there in December, her aunt Jenny Jenson-Hoffman said.
Jenson-Hoffman said around 3:30 Friday that Mann was found safe and they were working with the U.S. Embassy to escort her home. She had no further details on the disappearance, where she was located or her condition. "All we know is...she's in a safe spot," she said, adding Mann would be on a flight back home soon.
A Facebook page set up by Mann's family also announced that she was discovered safely, adding that "At this time we ask that you respect the [family's] privacy and continue the prayers as they work to bring Elizabeth home."
Mann had been in contact with her parents almost daily since arriving in Anjuna, but things got strange on Halloween night, her aunt said. The manager of the hostel told her parents that Mann was seen with an unknown man who had been targeting her, she said.
"The manager felt she was unsafe," Jenson-Hoffman said.
Police found the man and questioned him, but released him after they did not have enough evidence to hold him. Mann was advised to leave the country and return home. Her parents bought her a plane ticket. She last had contact with her parents in a FaceTime chat at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday Twin Cities time and was supposed to have boarded a flight Thursday, Jenson-Hoffman said.
Mann was not in her room when hostel staff went to wake her Thursday morning. All of her belongings were left in her room except for $60 cash and her passport, Jenson-Hoffman said.
