{"id":122506,"date":"2026-01-14T06:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T06:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/122506\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T06:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T06:40:11","slug":"friends-of-man-visiting-from-texas-missing-for-days-near-healy-struggle-to-understand-his-disappearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/122506\/","title":{"rendered":"Friends of man visiting from Texas missing for days near Healy struggle to understand his disappearance"},"content":{"rendered":"

HEALY, Alaska (KTUU) – According to his friends, Hari Karasani\u2019s decision to take a solo trip to Alaska was a strange and uncharacteristic one.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never had any trips or he never went anywhere,\u201d said Surya Teja, who lives with Karasani in Houston, Texas. \u201cI would never imagine that he would travel to Alaska, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karasani, 25, was listed as a missing person<\/a> on Jan. 3 after being last seen on New Year\u2019s Eve in Healy.<\/p>\n

According to Teja, Karasani grew up in Andhra Pradesh, India, and was living in Houston, Texas, while pursuing his PhD through Trine University.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 22, Karasani flew to Fairbanks after informing friends and family that he would be returning on \u201cthe fourth or fifth\u201d of January, according to Teja, as well as KP Sompally, an international coordinator for Telugu Association of North America (TANA) who is helping the family search.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never revealed why he\u2019s going to Alaska,\u201d Sompally said. \u201cThe roommates came to know only after their parents called back from India.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Sompally\u2019s account of the timeline of events, Karasani arrived at the Aurora Denali Lodge in Healy in the morning of Dec. 23 via Lyft due to his inability to drive.<\/p>\n

Ravindra Atla, another friend, said he called Karasani in the morning of Dec. 30. <\/p>\n

No one has heard from him since, according to Atla, Sompally, and Teja.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny details will help,\u201d Sompally said. \u201cThere\u2019s too much cold over there, and we are very much worried about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the National Weather Service, the temperature in Healy in the first few days after contact with Karasani was lost has been frigid, staying steady around 20 to 30-degrees below zero, dipping as low as -43 degrees Fahrenheit on Jan. 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are really, really worried,\u201d Teja said of Karasani\u2019s parents in India. \u201cInitially when this thing happened, they don\u2019t have any idea about Alaska, how bad the weather would be … so we had to explain them by sending and asking them to see some videos and understand how the weather would be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat, in fact, made them worried a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alaska Department of Public Safety Information Officer John Dougherty said that there was \u201cno indication of any suspicious circumstances regarding Mr. Karasani\u2019s disappearance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone with information can call Alaska State Troopers at (907) 451-5100.<\/p>\n

See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KTUU. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HEALY, Alaska (KTUU) – According to his friends, Hari Karasani\u2019s decision to take a solo trip to Alaska…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[53208,53207,53211,53210,18623,53213,53212,53209,53205,53206,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-122506","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-alaska-missing","9":"tag-alaska-missing-man","10":"tag-alaska-news","11":"tag-healy-missing","12":"tag-india","13":"tag-ktuu","14":"tag-ktvf","15":"tag-man-from-india","16":"tag-man-missing","17":"tag-missing-man-alaska","18":"tag-texas","19":"tag-texas-headlines","20":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}