Associated Press
ALLOUEZ, Wis. (AP) - At first glance, the cases seem eerily familiar: two women, both college students, disappear and their cars are found abandoned in tavern parking lots.
But authorities say it's too soon to draw any comparisons between the disappearance last weekend of Areerat Chuprevich, 32, and the still-unsolved disappearance of Amber Wilde, who was 19 when last seen five years ago.
"We have a missing person case that's all we've got," Brown County Sheriff's Department Capt. Craig Kohlbeck said. "As of right now, we can't say we suspect foul play."
Chuprevich was reported missing last Monday by her husband, Thomas, after he returned from a fishing trip to northern Wisconsin. He said he last saw his wife about noon Saturday and couldn't find her when he got home Sunday night.
On Monday, he called authorities, who found her blue 2002 Jeep Liberty in the parking lot of St. Michael's Pub in Allouez, a few blocks from the Mariner Motel where the Chupreviches live.
Areerat Chuprevich, 32, is a citizen of Thailand and came the United States with her husband, who is a doctor and a U.S. citizen.
She missed classes all week at St. Norbert College in De Pere, where she has been taking classes to improve her English while pursuing a degree in business administration.
The last anyone heard from her was an e-mail she sent to her sister in Detroit on Saturday.
Detectives have talked to the sister twice, Kohlbeck said, and they have talked to Chuprevich's husband at length.
"He's been very cooperative," Kohlbeck said. "We really don't suspect anybody right now. All we have is a missing-person case."
Amber Wilde last talked to her family in a telephone call after she was in a minor car crash on Green Bay's east side Sept. 23, 1998.
Wilde was six months pregnant and a student at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Her vehicle was found a week later in the lot of a bar near Lambeau Field.
Police are still working on the case and have sent pieces of her car to the FBI for analysis.
"We are hoping to connect a person to the vehicle and (it's) not Amber," said Green Bay police Lt. Jim Arts.
Kohlbeck, meanwhile, would like to hear from anyone with information about Chuprevich and her whereabouts. Even small bits of information can help point detectives in the right direction, he said.