Engineering grad student reported missing

Anirban Majumdar, a 25-year-old Engineering graduate student, has disappeared without a trace, University officials announced Friday.

"He has not been seen since last Friday," University spokeswoman Phyllis Holtzman said, expressing concern that no one has had contact with Majumdar since 8 p.m. on Nov. 2 -- his birthday.

According to Department of Special Services Director Pat Brennan, Majumdar was last seen in the Moore School building, located at 200 S. 33rd St., by two of his roommates.

"He told them he was going to finish up some work and that he'd be home shortly," Brennan said.

Majumdar's roommates contacted University Police on Nov. 5, concerned that he hadn't turned up over the weekend.

"He had one of his presentations on Monday," said Engineering graduate student Narayanan Mahesh, one of Majumdar's roommates, explaining that he and the second roommate became increasingly worried last Monday night. "He couldn't have missed [the presentation] because he was working on it for some time."

Majumdar, a native of Calcutta, India, currently lives on the 4500 block of Locust Street with four other students. This is his first semester at Penn.

According to Mahesh, Majumdar regularly uses PennTransit services to go home at night.

But Majumdar most likely did not use PennTransit the night of his disappearance, Brennan said.

"He normally takes the shuttle either outside [the David Rittenhouse Laboratory] or over at Moravian [Court] to go home," Brennan said. "We don't have any record from transportation that he ever got on."

When he was last seen, Majumdar was wearing dark trousers and a blue jacket. He is approximately 5'6", 130 pounds and has black hair and black eyes. He also wears glasses.

Majumdar's mother in India was notified of her son's disappearance by a telephone call on Wednesday from Vice Provost for University Life Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum through the use of an interpreter.

Mahesh said he is in regular contact with Majumdar's family.

"They said he had no problems they were aware of," Mahesh said. "From what I know of him, he's a pretty studious guy who stays to his work."

According to Mahesh, the only thing that struck him as out of the ordinary on Friday was when Majumdar received a series of immunization shots from Student Health Services.

Brennan noted that Majumdar could not have travelled far from the area where he was last seen.

"To the best of our knowledge he only has approximately $20 [in cash] that we can account for at the time of his disappearance," Brennan said.

According to Brennan, a check of Majumdar's financial records revealed only a "nominal" $28 transaction shortly before 11 a.m. the day he vanished.

Majumdar's associates in the School of Engineering and Applied Science expressed shock that one of their colleagues has disappeared without a trace.

"I saw him at a meeting from 3 to 5 that Friday," said Majumdar's adviser, Computer Science Professor Insup Lee. "I am shocked because there's no reason he would just leave."

"The whole department is so concerned," Lee added.

Despite the somewhat suspicious nature of Majumdar's disappearance, the investigation is currently being treated only as a missing persons case.

"We have no reason to suspect foul play at this time," Brennan said. "We're still in the process of contacting friends locally and out of state."

According to Brennan, Philadelphia Police have been notified and Majumdar's name has been entered into the National Crime Information Center database.

Brennan urged members of the University to help with the investigation by contacting University Police at (215) 898-6600 or (215) 898-4481 if they have any information regarding Majumdar's whereabouts.

"We'd like to ask the University community if they have any information whatsoever," Brennan said. "No information, however small, is trivial."

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