A California man who went missing 25 years ago has been found in a hospital after his sister saw a photo of him in an article, authorities said.
The discovery came when the sister called authorities Friday to say they were sent a USA Today article published this spring that featured a photo of a man who looked like her brother, the Lassen County Sheriff’s Office said.
The woman’s sister disappeared in 1999 from Doyle, California, near Reno, Nevada, authorities said. It appears she went missing voluntarily, according to the sheriff’s office.
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A USA Today article published this spring asked the public to help identify a speechless man who was hospitalized in the Los Angeles area, the sheriff’s office said.
Lassen County Sheriff’s Deputy Derek Kennemore contacted the hospital and learned that the unidentified man had been transferred to an L.A. hospital in July, authorities said.
A Los Angeles police officer went to a second hospital and took the patient’s fingerprints, which confirmed his identity as the man who went missing in 1999, the sheriff’s office said in a statement on Monday.
Kennemore gave the man’s sister the news, and the family will soon be reunited, authorities said. The sheriff’s office is keeping the man’s identity.
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The sister was “very happy,” Capt. Mike Carney of the Lassen County Sheriff’s Office told ABC News on Tuesday. “They were very grateful that we took the time to follow up on the story. He was over the moon and wanted to call other family members to let them know.”
“It will make their Thanksgiving better,” he said.
Carney called this a “perfect example” of not giving up on missing persons cases.
“Persist on these things, because there are family members who need answers,” he said.
A man who went missing in 1999 was found after a sister saw his photo in a news article: The Sheriff first appeared on abcnews.go.com