Thanks in large part to his sister, who never stopped looking for him, a California man who disappeared 25 years ago was discovered alive over the weekend more than 500 miles away.
The Lassen County Sheriff's Office stated Monday that the man, whose name was withheld for privacy, was found in a Los Angeles county hospital after his family reported him missing from Doyle, California, in 1999.
After authorities discovered him in south Louisiana on April 15, his sister received a USA Today article asking for details about an unnamed and nonverbal man who had been at the St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood for over a month, according to the sheriff’s office.
She believed the man in the photo of the article was her long-lost brother and called the Lassen County Sheriff to investigate.
Sheriff’s Deputy Derek Kennemore contacted the hospital, but staffers there told him that the patient had been transferred to a different hospital in the LA area in July.
He called the second hospital, which confirmed they had a nonverbal and unidentified patient in their care who matched the description of the woman’s missing brother.
Kennemore then alerted Los Angeles police and the missing persons unit who joined the investigation.
A LAPD detective went to the hospital and fingerprinted the unknown patient. The fingerprints were a positive match for the Doyle man who disappeared in 1999.
Kennemore called the man’s sister to share that after more than two decades, her brother had been found safe at last.
The siblings will soon be reunited, the sheriff’s office state
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