Nov 28, 2024
(CNN)  Its a Thanksgiving miracle for one California family after a man who went missing in 1999 was found 25 years later when his sister saw a photo of him in an online article, authorities said.The man who has been missing since August of 1999 was found sitting on a curb in Los Angeles earlier this year, according to a GoFundMe page created by the mans older sister to raise funds for a medical transfer.He just VANISHED with no trace. Not even his vehicle was ever located, the mans sister said in the GoFundMe post. All this time I had been looking for unidentified remains. I was delighted to find him alive!The woman had contacted the Lassen County Sheriffs Department on Friday to say that she believed a man featured in an online article was her missing brother, the sheriffs department said in a Facebook post.The USA Today article, published in May, was a request for the public to help identify a nonverbal man who was hospitalized in Lynwood, California. The man had been found in South Los Angeles on April 15, according to medical officials cited in the article.The woman, whose name has not been released by the sheriffs department to protect family privacy, told Deputy Derek Kennemore that her brother was reported missing in 1999 from Doyle, a small California town about 45 miles northwest of Reno, Nevada. She had not heard from him since.Kennemore contacted the hospital in the article, only to learn that the man had been transferred to another LA facility in July.The deputy then reached out for help from the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department Missing Persons Unit, which was able to fingerprint the hospitalized man and positively identify him as the same person who went missing in 1999, according to the release.The family will be reunited soon, the release said.The next day, the Nor-Cal Alliance for the Missing, a non-profit that advocates for missing individuals, announced the long-awaited and miraculous reunion in a news release.After being missing for 25 years, Tommy, a case close to our hearts, has been found and will soon be reunited with his loving family, the release said.The organization began working on the mans case in 2016, according to the release.In the GoFundMe post, the woman added that she does not have money for supplies needed to take care of her brother who is learning how to walk again and is nonverbal.I would like to send him a device to listen to his favorite songs (Sailing, I Want to Know What Love Is, and Time After Time) to help his memory and get some response, she said.CNN has reached out to officials in California for more details about the mans disappearance and how he ended up in the hospital where he remains.
Respond, make new discussions, see other discussions and customize your news...

To add this website to your home screen:

1. Tap tutorialsPoint

2. Select 'Add to Home screen' or 'Install app'.

3. Follow the on-scrren instructions.

Feedback
FAQ
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service