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Where Is Shilpa Prabhu's Husband?

Sonia Chopra

The wife of a man who has been missing for six weeks in San Jose is asking everyone in the local community to not only look out for her husband but to make a citizen's arrest, keeping him safe until she can come and get him.

Tired of people calling her hourly with reported "sightings" of her clinically-depressed husband, Shilpa Prabhu, 23, now wants people to intervene and help her.

"It doesn't do me any good when people call me and say they saw him on the train or the bus. They need to call me when they see him, not three hours later when it's too late," said Prabhu, who has been married for seven months.

"And they need to distract him, keep him talking, do anything so that he is still there when I come to get him."

Shailesh Prabhu, 29, a software engineer at Interbase in Santa Cruz, California went to work on the morning of Sept. 14 and did not come home. But he did spend the day at work.

Police have no leads. And they say the reported sightings were unconfirmed.

"It's not unusual for an adult to disappear but then they usually reappear somewhere, with another job, another partner. This has not happened here. He has just, simply disappeared of the face of the earth," said Detective Craig Tarr of the San Jose Police Department.

"This is a baffling case. Here we have an educated man, a smart man. It's confusing. Why would he want to leave his job and his wife?" said Tarr.

"It was an ordinary morning. He told me, 'Let's go to the temple in the evening for the puja celebration' and he told me to cook something simple, so that I would not have to struggle when we came back," said Prabhu, who recalled her husband ate his usual bowl of cereal as he chatted at the breakfast table.

She cooked a meal of dal, rice, potatoes and a desert made from jackfruit, her husband's favorite. The desert is still in the refrigerator. Then she laid out a green sari and waited for his call. At 6.30 pm, when he still had not called, she called his office every few minutes but got no response.

Worried, she called the California Highway Patrol at 9 pm to ask if there had been any reported accidents on the road he usually took. There was none.

Three days later, exploring Shailesh's favorite haunts, with his brother Rajesh, who flew in from Denver, Colorado, they found his car parked on the Golden Gate Bridge. His wallet and credit cards were on the passenger seat, intact. The police were informed and the missing person investigation began.

"I have hope. I know that he is coming back. He is just lost. I believe that and that gives me the strength to go on," said Prabhu, adding that her husband was on antidepressants and that if he stopped taking them, it would result in severe mood swings, disorientation and possible memory loss.

"I pray and I know many people are praying for us. God cannot turn his back on so many people," she said.

Shailesh had been struggling with severe depression for years. He was seeing a psychiatrist and his wife went along with him on some visits.

Shailesh's state of mind was not overwhelming for her. "It was okay for me. I could handle it. I did not think too much about it but he was always concerned he was burdening me," said Prabhu, who added that her husband told her of his problems after they came to the United States.

Shailesh, who is on an H-1 visa, had an arranged marriage in India. His parents have come from India to help in searching for him. They asked that the name of their town and their names be kept confidential.

Prabhu said her husband was "excellent" at his job, had just been promoted and "constantly amazed everyone with his quick responses to new things" but he was "always under pressure and worried about his job security."

His depression was no secret among close friends, although colleagues at work had no idea.

"Actually the fact that he was missing was a big shock. He would get depressed and he would take a walk or go to the library but he never, ever left home," said Ramesh Murugan, 29, whose wife Pratima, also 29, is related to Shailesh.

The couple seemed happy to friends in the community.

"They were the typical happy newly-weds -- very normal. It's really sad. She is newly married, in a foreign country and she is going through all this," said Malini Racherla, 27, another family friend.

Shailesh Prabhu is six feet four inches tall and weighs 190 pounds. He has light brown complexion, has a moustache and wears glasses. He was dressed in a blue knit shirt and black pants. If you believe you have seen him or have any information about him, please call his wife at (408) 293-5918. You can also call San Francisco police at (415) 553-1071 or San Jose police at (408) 277-8900.

Prabhu's family and friends have also created a web site: http://www.vi-jyot.com/konkani-net/public/shailesh.html.

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