A month after UCLA student Ahmad Arain was reported missing, his
family continues to search for him with the hope and expectation
that he will return home safely.
Though simultaneous investigations by the university police and
a private investigator hired by the family have yielded no
indications as to the whereabouts of Arain, Arain’s friends
and family have no intention of stopping their search.
Hoping to stimulate interest in the case, his family last week
doubled the cash reward offered to $20,000 for information leading
to his safe return.
The increase in reward money led to an increase in new leads,
none of which has turned up new information, said Sulayman Arain,
Ahmad’s brother.
Sulayman added that members of his family are looking into other
ways of stepping up search efforts as they continue to canvass the
neighborhoods around where Arain was last seen exiting an MTA
bus.
“We’ve covered most of the area around where he got
off,” Sulayman said. “(But) we’re not losing
hope.”
Arain left his Anaheim home the morning of July 23, bound for
UCLA, but he never arrived on campus. Surveillance footage from MTA
Bus 6585 shows Arain exiting the bus at a stop about 6 miles from
UCLA.
He was reported missing later that day when he did not return
home.
Investigators are looking for a woman seen in surveillance
footage on the same bus as Arain.
Sulayman said he found the woman while searching the area and
turned over his findings to the UCPD, but the woman did not
remember his brother.
The UCPD is following all leads in the case, but it has no
indication of Arain’s whereabouts, said Nancy Greenstein,
director of police community services for the UCPD.
She added that the police also are in the process of
investigating Arain’s computer.
With reports from Menaka Fernando, Bruin senior
staff.