A California man who vanished without a trace 25 years ago was found alive more than 500 miles away over the weekend after his sister saw his photo in a news article.
The Lassen County Sheriff’s Department announced this development on Monday, Nov. 25, through a Facebook news release. According to the statement, a woman reached out to the department after coming across a photo of a missing person in a USA Today article.
The photo, from an April 2024 issue, featured a patient at St. Francis Medical Center in Los Angeles County, with the article detailing the hospital’s efforts to locate the individual. The patient, who had been unidentified since his discovery in South Los Angeles, was believed to be the missing man by the woman.
The woman “believed” the man was “her missing brother,” the sheriff’s office said in its statement.
The woman said her brother was first reported missing from Doyle, California, in 1999.
“The man had not been heard from since,” the sheriff’s office stated, later noting that both the woman and her brother’s identity have not been publicized to protect their privacy.
Deputy Derek Kennemore reached out to the hospital and was told the man was transferred to a local hospital in July.
“The man was non verbal and had never been identified,” authorities noted.
Kennemore then contacted the second hospital, which confirmed a man who matched the missing person’s description was a patient there.
The deputy then contacted the Los Angeles Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit, and a detective took the patient’s fingerprints, which confirmed him as the same man who had gone missing 25 years ago.
Later, Kennemore informed the woman that the patient was indeed her brother, and “the family will be reunited soon,” the sheriff’s department shared.
The sister “was super excited” to reunite with her brother, Capt. Mike Carney told ABC News on Tuesday, Nov. 26. “She was very appreciative that we took the time just to follow up on it. She was over the moon and anxious to call other family members to let them know.”
The reunion would “make their Thanksgiving that much better,” Carney added, calling the story a “perfect example” of why families should stay hopeful in missing person cases.
