A man who went missing for 25 years was reunited with his family after a friend spotted him in a newspaper report on missing people, police said Tuesday.
The nonverbal man, who has not been identified but is believed to be in his 60s, was found in Los Angeles earlier this year and had spent time in two hospitals without staff or police knowing who he was.
Lassen County Sheriff’s Office, in northeast California, said that a woman contacted Deputy Derek Kennemore on Friday to say she recognized her brother — who had not been seen since he was reported missing in Doyle, California, in 1999 — in an April USA Today article.
The article was headlined “He’s been in an LA hospital for weeks and they have no idea who he is. Can you help?” and mentioned that the man had been at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, California, since he was discovered April 15.
“The patient can not communicate his name or any other information that could help with his identification, according to a news release. Staff could not offer more information on his health status due to patient confidentiality laws,” the article said.
After some inquiries, the sheriff found he had been moved to another Los Angeles hospital in July.
“Deputy Kennemore contacted the second hospital who confirmed that they had a non-verbal, unidentified man in their care that matched the description of the missing person,” the sheriff’s office said in the release.
A detective from LAPD’s Missing Persons Unit came to the hospital and fingerprinted the man, confirming he was the same person who went missing in 1999. The family has asked for their identities not to be revealed, the sheriff’s office said.
“Deputy Kennemore recontacted the woman and informed her that, with the assistance of LAPD, we were able to positively identify the man as her brother. The family will be reunited soon,” the sheriff’s office said.