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Model Ataui Deng Found After Going Missing for 2 Weeks, Police Say

By  Lisha Arino Murray Weiss and Ben Fractenberg | August 18, 2014 4:14pm | Updated on August 18, 2014 11:14pm

  Model Ataui Deng Hopkins, 22, was last seen Aug. 6, police said. She lives on the Lower East Side and was last seen at the XVI Lounge at 251 West 48th Street, police said.
Ataui Deng Hopkins
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MIDTOWN — Model Ataui Deng, who walked the runways for Zac Posen and Proenza Schouler, was found in a local hospital Monday night almost two weeks after she disappeared near a Midtown nightclub, law enforcement sources said.

Deng, 22, recently checked herself into a hospital under an assumed name, sources said. After police asked for the public's help in finding Deng Monday afternoon, sparking widespread media reports, staff at the hospital realized that they were treating Deng and notified police, sources said. 

It was not immediately clear what type of care Deng was receiving.

The 6-foot-1 model, whose full name is Ataui Deng Hopkins, was reported missing by her boyfriend Grant Monohon on Aug. 16, 10 days after he last saw her near 251 West 48th St., where nightclubs XVI Lounge and The Attic are located, police said.

Monohon said earlier Monday evening that it was not unusual for Deng to take off for a day or two, so at first he didn't think much of her absence.

“I was really worried the third day,” he said by phone, before hearing the news that Deng had been found. “She always comes home.”

Relatives also told detectives that Deng would occasionally disappear for a few days, sources said.

Word of Deng's disappearance alarmed her friends and colleagues, who spread the word on social media.

Pop star Rihanna, who had collaborated with Deng on a campaign in 2013, posted a photo of herself with the model Monday afternoon.

Deng, who is represented by Trump Model Management, was born in Khartoum, Sudan, and moved to San Antonio, Texas, as a teen before making her debut on the New York runways in 2008 for shows including L’Wren Scott, Proenza Schouler and Zac Posen, according to New York magazine.

A man who answered the phone at Trump Model Management Monday afternoon declined to comment. 

Roble Ali, a professional chef who stars on Bravo’s reality series “Chef Roble & Co.,” also helped spread the word about Deng's disappearance on social media earlier Monday.

“She’s an angel. She’s a sweetheart. She’s a great girl,” said Ali, a Fort Greene resident who has known Deng for five years. “She’s loved by a lot of people.”

With reporting by Jim Fanelli and Natalie Musumeci.