After 25 years, a family will be reunited with their missing relative thanks to a USA Today article and gumshoe police work.
On Friday, a woman called the Lassen County Sheriff's Office saying she had been sent an article about an unknown patient in Los Angeles. He believes the man in the headline is his brother who was reported missing in 1999 in the town of Doyle, the Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
The patient was found in South LA on April 15 and was being cared for at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood. Hospital officials at the time asked for the public's help in locating the man, who was unable to communicate.
The hospital announced that the patient is believed to be in his 60s, has gray hair, blue eyes and is about 6 feet, 1 inch tall, but had no other information about him. So they shared his picture in the community and asked for help.
On May 9, USA Today published its article with the man's photo at the top. After six months, things came together quickly last week.
A woman who called the Lassen County Sheriff's Office with a tip brought her story to Deputy Derek Kennemore. Kennemore, in turn, contacted a medical center in Lynwood about their mysterious patient, only to find out that he had been transferred to another medical center in Los Angeles in July. The agency confirmed with Kennemore that they had a non-verbal, unidentified person in their care that matched the description.
So as a next step, Kennemore contacted the Los Angeles Police Department's missing person's unit, who had the patient's investigator's fingerprints. The writing confirmed the woman's theory that it was her missing brother and Kennemore called her with the good news.
Sheriff's officials withheld the names of the patient and the woman to protect the family's privacy, but said they will be “united soon.”
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