After 30 Years, Missing Man Remembers Who He Is

Almost 30 years after he went missing from a group home in Kitchener, Ontario, at the age of 21, Edgar Latulip remembered something very important last month: his name. Police say the 50-year-old, who has a developmental delay and functions at a child's level, has spent the last 30 years living in St. Catharines, around 80 miles from where he disappeared, CTV reports. From what investigators can piece together, Latulip took a bus to Niagara Falls in September 1986 and ended up in St. Catharines, where he suffered a head injury and "effectively forgot who he was" until this year, when he told a social worker he remembered. Before his disappearance, Latulip had attempted suicide at least once, leading to fears he may have killed himself.

Police officer Duane Gingerich, who investigated the disappearance, tells the Guelph Mercury that he's thrilled that Latulip has turned up alive. "I had hopes that he was out there somewhere," he says. "For us as investigators, this is great, this is awesome. It's satisfying because most of these cases don't turn out this way. You expect the worst when a person is missing for that period of time." A DNA test confirmed Latulip's identity and police say a reunion with his mother, who moved to Ottawa years ago, is being arranged. In a 2014 interview, she told the Mercury she was still haunted by the disappearance. "This is always at the back of my mind. Having an answer would mean closure," she said. (A California hospital recently identified the man it had called "Garage 66" for 16 years.)