Indian techie Siddhant Vittal Patil, who is believed to have drowned in Glacier National Park in the United States, had sent a message to his mother from the park hours before the tragedy, his family said on Friday.
“Last Friday, Siddhant called his mother Preeti from the park and informed her that he was at the park for three days with six other Indian friends and was enjoying the trip,” his maternal uncle Pritesh Chaudhary told PTI.
Choudhary, who lives in Pune, said Siddhant (26) had also messaged his mother two hours before the tragic incident that he would return to San Jose, where he worked at Cadence Design Systems, in three days.
Chowdhury said his friends took the IMEI number of his iPhone from the phone box in his room and gave it to Montana park rangers and other officials to help with the search. He said no results have been obtained so far.
Preeti and Siddhant’s father Vithal, who retired from the Maharashtra government’s irrigation department in May, is in shock and not on speaking terms, Choudhary said.
“Suresh Sharma of the Indian Consulate in Seattle called me after the incident as he had given my number as a contact to the US authorities,” Choudhary said.
“I have been in touch with the consulate since Monday,” he said.
He said that Maharashtra leaders including Sharad Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis have written a letter to the government asking for help. He said that Union Minister Muralidhar Mohol, who is coming from Pune, is in touch with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for information about the search operation.
“Siddhant moved to the US in 2020 to pursue his MS from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He joins Cadence in 2023,” Choudhary said.
Siddhant’s body has not yet been found despite an aerial search by helicopters, but authorities suspect the body is buried under submerged obstacles such as fallen trees and rocks. Authorities have presumed him dead.
Rangers are constantly monitoring the area and are beginning to recover personal items that have been washed down the river.
Rangers flew a drone to locate the carcass, but the attempt was unsuccessful.
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