Vitor Coneglia Franchito, a computer engineering student who disappeared Feb. 5 and was found Feb. 19, left for Brazil Tuesday.
Friends said they weren’t sure if he would be returning to school.
Before he vanished for two weeks, witnesses last saw Franchito buying cigarettes at a convenience store. His disappearance sparked a statewide search that ended when he was found walking along Airport Boulevard in Morrisville.
Friends had speculated about Franchito visiting his fiancee.
According to friend Rodrigo Lourenco, however, the only thing Franchito has made clear about his disappearance was that it was not because of his fiancée Rafaela Santos.
He said, however, that it might have resulted from a multitude of issues.
“It was the courses and his fiancée and he was a little homesick,” Lourenco said. “It was a lot of stuff.”
Franchito is enrolled in five 200-level electrical and computer engineering courses and one 300-level computer science course.
His father flew to Raleigh from Brazil after he was missing for nine days.
Raleigh Police said they did not know where Franchito went while missing.
He spent 10 days in the WakeMed hospital where he was being treated for frostbite on his feet. Nighttime low temperatures fell into the 20s during the period Franchito went missing.
Although Franchito’s injuries were treated successfully, according to Lourenco, doctors questioned the extent of Franchito’s frostbite and whether he would keep all his toes.
Lourenco said Franchito will decide with his family whether or not he will return to the United States. Lourenco held a going away party for Franchito Monday night where friends celebrated Franchito’s safety.
“Yesterday at the party everybody was pretty happy that he was OK and he was doing well,” Lourenco said. “I just want him to keep going on well.”
The Raleigh Police Department has said that cases similar to Franchito’s are common. When Franchito was missing, detective Holly Rinaldo said people disappear for various reasons, whether it’s a mental disability or a response to stress.
Student Health Services offers a counseling center for students who are experiencing personal, academic or vocational problems, and most services are free of charge.
