NYU Student Disappears After Court Appearance, NYPD Says

UPDATE: NYU announced just after 2 p.m. that Nyamal Pal had been found. NYU senior vice president for student affairs Marc Wais said in a statement: "I want to update the NYU community with the great news that CAS student Nyamal Pal has been found, and is in safe hands. Privacy considerations prevent me from providing more details, but I knew everyone would want to hear about this positive turn of events."

GREENWICH VILLAGE — A New York University student and Sudanese war refugee has been missing since leaving Kings County Criminal Court last Friday after being charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle.

The woman, Nyamal Pal, 21, is an NYU undergraduate in the College of Arts and Science. Police said Pal was last seen on Fri., Feb. 22 around 10 a.m. when she was leaving the courthouse at 120 Schemerhorn.

"We are of course very concerned, and are fully cooperating with the NYPD in this effort," university spokeswoman Shonna Keogan said.

Two friends said Thursday they'd been told Pal was found in a hospital around 11 a.m., but the NYPD said she was still missing.

Pal, who lives in an NYU dorm on Broome St., is described as approximately 5-feet 10-inches and 130 pounds with a slim build and brown eyes, police said. She has a crown tattoo behind her right ear and a scar on her forehead.

Last Thursday, Feb. 21, an MTA officer arrested Pal in Brooklyn for criminal mischief, unauthorized use of a vehicle and trespass, according to a criminal complaint from the Brooklyn District Attorney's office.

The complaint says that Pal was seen driving a 2004 BMW across the Long Island Rail Road train yard across a train track and driving it up and down the ramps.

Pal was released on Friday without bail, according to the Brooklyn DA's office.

She had been arrested in a previous instance on Feb. 15 in Queens.

The NYU undergrad hails from Franklin, Tennessee and moved to attend NYU as a first-generation college student on full scholarship, according to a 2015 article in the Tennessean.

Her family left Sudan as war refugees before moving to Lebanon, where Pal was born, according to her brother, Pal Kong. Her family moved to the U.S. in the 2000s, her brother said.

At the time, she said she wanted to work to "break the cycle of poverty," motivated by her family's experience as war refugees, the paper reported.

"If you ask anyone, they're going to say she's one of the friendliest people you'll ever meet," said Amanda Bonfante, Pal's friend since middle school. "Getting arrested is completely out of character."

"That's not her character," Pal's mother, Nyjod Yan, said of her arrests. "She's very responsible."

Yan said she spoke with her daughter last Thursday evening and she seemed "happy and normal," but that she had wanted to speak about something. Friday, she never heard from her.

Yan didn't know about her daughter's arrests until she went missing, she said.

"I think that's what she wanted to tell me," Yan said.

"We're shocked that she hasn't been found," said Rae Jordan, Pal's friend from NYU. "Nyamal is someone who with all of this [would be] attached to her phone, which all millennials are, but she's ridiculously attached to her phone."

NYU sent an alert to students on Feb. 27 encouraging students to contact the NYPD with any tips on Pal's whereabouts.

"In an effort to locate Nyamal, her photo is circulating on social media and other sources at the moment," the email, forwarded to Patch by a student, said, signed Marc Wais, the senior vice president for student affairs. "We realize this can cause some students to feel anxious or distressed. We encourage students to maintain their daily routines but to not "go it alone."

"Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Nyamal at this difficult time," the email said.