Family Offers Reward In Nearly Year-Old Case Of Missing Doctor
Updated 03/07/12 - 8:40 p.m.
MUNSTER, Ind. (CBS) -- The ex-husband of an eye doctor missing for nearly a year from Munster, Ind., is glad about a reward for information being offered by her family.
As WBBM Newsradio's Brandis Friedman reports, Dr. Promila Mehta-Paul's ex-husband, pediatrician Dr. Sheshi Daman Paul, says the outlook for finding his ex-wife is far from promising.
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"Things don't look good from all that we hear," he said.
Mehta-Paul's ex-husband told CBS 2's Pamela Jones that his ex-wife's disappearance was devastating.
"It has been a year since she disappeared, and it has been a terrible strain on the whole family," he said.
But despite that, he is encouraged by the reward money offered by Mehta-Paul's two brothers – $10,000 for information leading to an arrest, and another $10,000 for information leading to the discovery of her body.
Mehta-Paul was last seen on March 21, 2011, and did not show up for work at her eye clinic in Highland, Ind., the next day, despite having several appointments scheduled. She had left her office the day before and deposited money at a First Bank branch in Highland, but disappeared soon afterward.
Surveillance cameras caught the last known images of his ex-wife making a deposit at her bank in Highland, Ind. Police have said she got in her gold Toyota RAV4 and drove off, but never returned home and didn't show up to work the next day.
Her son, Paresh Paul, was living with her in Munster, and was named a person of interest, but no one has been charged.
The family hopes the reward money will stir up more leads.
"I'm very optimistic that the reward will encourage someone to come forward with important information," Daman Paul said.
He and his ex-wife parted ways some 20 years ago.
Munster Police Sgt. Steven Kovacik says police believe she is now dead.
"It's been several weeks since we've gotten any new information on this case, and we're eager to solve it as much as the family," Kovacik said.
Daman Paul said it's a really big loss for him, even though they've been separated so long,
"Of course. ... She is the mother of my children," he said.
Police said her son, Paresh Paul, left the Munster area and went west - and into Mexico - about the time his mother disappeared last March. Authorities confronted him six days after Mehta-Paul vanished. He was crossing the border back into California.
Paresh Paul also goes by the names of Paul Fountaine and is known to have used the aliases of Omar Ahmend and Paul Asconte.
