FBI revives 7-year-old case of missing Indian student Mayushi Bhagat

The FBI's Newark Field Office on April 13, 2026, renewed its public appeal for information in the disappearance of Mayushi Bhagat, an Indian national who has been missing from Jersey City, New Jersey, since April 29, 2019. A reward of up to $10,000 remains on offer for information leading to her location, recovery, or the identification and conviction of anyone responsible. Suspicious circumstances have surrounded the case from the beginning.

The #FBI offers a reward of up to $10,000 for info leading to the location or recovery of Mayushi Bhagat, and the identification, arrest, and conviction of those responsible. She was last seen in the evening hours of April 29, 2019, leaving her Jersey City, NJ apartment:… pic.twitter.com/CDt1WJjLhM

— FBI (@FBI) April 13, 2026

Bhagat, born July 12, 1994, in Vadodara, Gujarat, was 24 years old when she vanished. She was pursuing a master's degree in electrical engineering at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) on an F1 student visa, living with her family at an apartment on Vroom Street in Jersey City. She was last seen leaving the residence on the evening of April 29, 2019, wearing colorful pajama pants and a black t-shirt.

Key highlights of the case:

1. The renewed push, coming precisely 16 days before the seventh anniversary of her disappearance, is being seen as a deliberate escalation.
2. FBI field offices do not reissue missing person appeals after seven years as a matter of routine.
3. She was reportedly weeks away from completing her degree and had already secured a job offer in California, making investigators and her family firmly reject the possibility of a voluntary disappearance.
4. WhatsApp messages sent from her phone in the early hours of May 1, 2019, claimed she was safe and would return home on May 3. She never did.

Her family has consistently maintained she could not have written those messages, citing broken English that was starkly inconsistent with her known fluency in the language. Seven years on, those messages remain officially unexplained. What began as a Jersey City Police Department case has grown significantly. The FBI Newark Field Office's visible role in the renewed appeal signals an investigation that has long moved beyond local jurisdiction.

The $10,000 reward was first announced in December 2023. The fact that it has now been publicly amplified again in April 2026, more than two years later without resolution, underlines the urgency investigators still attach to this case. Bhagat is described as 5'10" tall, 150 to 160 lbs, with a medium build, black hair, and brown eyes. She also goes by the names Mayushi Vikas Bhagat and Mayusi Vikas Bhagat. The case is being investigated jointly by the FBI Newark Field Office, Jersey City Police Department, and New Jersey State Police. Anyone with information is urged to contact FBI Newark at 973-792-3000 or Jersey City PD at 201-547-5427.