Buzz
Amnesia may feel like a storyline pulled from a soap opera. Although it’s a rare condition, there are real cases where individuals experience severe memory loss, sometimes for decades, without recognizing themselves. The situation becomes even more distressing when the amnesiac is discovered far from home. Yet, in some extraordinary instances, they are reunited with their loved ones.
10. Cheryl Ann Tomiczek
In September 1980, a police officer was on patrol at Hugh Taylor Birch State Park in Florida when he noticed something unusual in the woods. Curious, he investigated and found a woman covered in dirt, buried in a shallow grave. Remarkably, she was still alive.
She was rushed to the hospital where doctors discovered that the woman was on the brink of starvation, covered in sores, and had no recollection of her past. She couldn’t even recall the taste of mustard.
There were very few clues to explain how the woman ended up in the woods. While she couldn’t remember much, she was certain she hadn’t been assaulted. Her clothes were neatly folded beside her, and four Styrofoam cups were scattered around her. She had only 12 cents in her pocket.
Her body was also fairly unremarkable. Apart from some moles on her face, she didn’t have any visible scars, tattoos, or even a vaccination mark, which made it even harder to identify her.
In February 1981, the woman, known as 'Jane Doe,' appeared on Good Morning America in the hopes that someone would recognize her. The police were overwhelmed with calls and letters from families hoping that Jane Doe was their missing relative.
Remarkably, one viewer, Irene Tomiczek from Roselle, Illinois, recognized Jane Doe as her 34-year-old daughter, Cheryl Ann Tomiczek. Cheryl Ann had moved to Florida seven years prior.
Two years after Cheryl Ann had moved to Florida, Irene lost touch with her daughter following a disturbing phone conversation. Cheryl Ann seemed distressed, and Irene could hear voices in the background. When Irene asked if Cheryl Ann wanted to come home, her daughter snapped and angrily told her mother she never wanted to speak to her again.
In March 1981, Irene flew to Florida to see Cheryl Ann, who was still going by the name Jane because she liked it. Irene confirmed that the woman was indeed her daughter. In April, Cheryl Ann returned to her family’s home in Roselle. She didn’t remember her parents but described them as 'nice people.'
9. Jeffrey Alan Ingram
On September 10, 2006, a man in his late thirties or early forties entered a hospital in Denver claiming he had no memory of his identity. He explained that he had woken up on the street and spent six hours searching for help before heading to the hospital.
He was diagnosed with a dissociative fugue, a rare form of amnesia often triggered by stress. For six weeks, the man had no recollection of who he was. On October 22, 2006, the man appeared on national news programs, appealing for anyone who recognized him to come forward.
Fortunately, someone recognized him and alerted his fiancée. She then contacted the police, revealing that the man was 40-year-old Jeffrey Alan Ingram from Olympia, Washington. He had been about a 20-hour drive away from where he originally woke up.
Ingram had gone missing on September 6 while en route to Canada to visit a friend who was dying of cancer. Once his identity was confirmed, Ingram flew to Seattle, where he reunited with his fiancée and mother. However, he still struggled to remember much of his past.
Incredibly, this wasn’t the first time Ingram had experienced a dissociative fugue. In 1995, he disappeared after a trip to the grocery store, only to be found nine months later in a Seattle hospital. But even after this, he didn’t fully recover his memory.
8. Ruth Ellish
On December 10, 1989, a woman woke up with a severe headache in a Nashville motel room, having no recollection of who she was or how she ended up there. Her limbs were bruised, and she had a black eye. She discovered a note in her coat pocket bearing the name Kitty Jordan, which she assumed was her own.
She found refuge at a women’s shelter, where she secured a job as a cook. By September 1989, more than 10 months after her arrival in Nashville, the police reached out to the public for help in identifying her.
Once the story gained national attention, some relatives recognized her and identified her as Ruth Ellish, a 50-year-old divorced mother of two from Dayton, Ohio. Upon investigation, the police discovered that Ruth had gone missing on December 8, 1989, two days prior to when Kitty woke up in the motel room.
Ruth’s family traveled to Nashville to reunite with her. While she planned to visit them briefly, she intended to return to Nashville, the place where she felt most comfortable. She continued to use the name Kitty, which she preferred over Ruth.
Despite not recognizing her mother or sister, Ruth had no doubt that they were indeed her family members.
7. Celestine Gandy Thompson
In 1957, 14-year-old Celestine Gandy Thompson left her home in Mississippi and eventually settled in Buffalo, New York. In 1992, after surviving a fire, she fell into a coma for two years. Upon waking, she had little recollection of her early life or her biological family.
For the next several decades, Thompson worked on regaining her memory. The only name from her past that she could recall was Clarence Woolard, her nephew, who eventually reached out to the rest of her family. They had assumed she had passed away due to the years of silence.
After reestablishing contact, some of her family members traveled to Buffalo to see her. In 2014, a large family reunion was organized, marking the first time in nearly 60 years that Thompson reunited with much of her lost family. She also discovered that she had 23 nieces and nephews, 64 grandnieces and grandnephews, 66 great-grandnieces and great-grandnephews, and 34 great-great-grandnieces and great-great-grandnephews.
6. Ashley Manetta
In February 2015, a middle-aged woman was discovered wandering through a beach community in Carlsbad, California. She had no memory of who she was when the police found her. After being taken to a hospital, doctors diagnosed her with ovarian cancer and suggested that the amnesia was caused by antibodies produced by the tumors.
For the next five months, both the police and the FBI worked to identify the woman, who was calling herself “Sam.” Despite their efforts, they had no success. By late June 2015, the hospital staff decided to get the local news involved, and the story quickly gained national attention.
Just two days later, the woman's nephew recognized her and identified her as 53-year-old Ashley Manetta. She had lost contact with her family after moving to California in 2013. Once her identity was confirmed, Manetta stated that she would be flying to Maryland to reunite with her sister and the rest of her family.
5. Mary Joyce Howard
In February 1998, a woman in her late forties was discovered gravely injured beside an interstate near Erick, Oklahoma. She was rushed to the hospital, where doctors performed extensive brain surgery, leaving her temporarily unable to speak.
Without any identification, the only personal items found in her bag were a pair of shorts and a halter top. The only distinctive feature on her body was a rose tattoo located above her left breast. For a time, she was known only as “Jane Doe,” but eventually, she regained some speech, though her identity remained a mystery.
On January 10, 2000, she was admitted to a hospital in Oklahoma City for pneumonia. When a nurse asked her name, she answered with “Joyce” before quickly correcting herself and saying “Mary Joyce.”
The nurse continued to ask her questions, slowly helping her memory return. Mary recalled her full name, her date of birth, her hometown, and several family members. The turning point came when she remembered the first few digits of her social security number.
Using the information they had gathered, the police tracked down fingerprints from an arrest in 1980 involving a Mary Joyce Howard from High Point, North Carolina. This led them to contact her father. In February 2000, a team of volunteers, including a doctor and two paramedics, traveled for 18 hours to reunite Mary with her family.
4. David Yerke
The day after Christmas in 1945, 28-year-old David Yerke, a husband and father, embarked on a solo fishing trip from Tarpon Springs, Florida. A week later, his dinghy was discovered in Bayport, Florida, just a short distance from where he had started. Despite the find, there was no trace of Yerke, and his family assumed he had drowned.
In reality, Yerke was across the Gulf of Mexico in New Orleans, Louisiana, allegedly suffering from amnesia. He was living under the name “Reuben David Dry.” By February 1946, he had remarried.
Eventually, Yerke found work as an orderly at a nursing home. Five years later, during the fall of 1951, he suffered a mild paralytic stroke, which helped him regain some of his memories. He remembered his name as David Yerke and recalled that he had family in Detroit, Michigan.
With these revived memories, David tracked down his brother, Norman, in Detroit and called him. Norman, stunned by the news, sent David money for a plane ticket to return home. Norman then reached out to David’s wife, informing her that David had been found. She and their six-year-old daughter flew to Detroit, and they spent Thanksgiving together, marking their first reunion in five years.
Interestingly, David's wife in New Orleans had no idea where he had gone when he traveled to Detroit. She filed her own missing persons report. To her surprise, she learned that David had another family.
3. Roland Franklin Gilman
On April 14, 1955, Roland Franklin Gilman, 34, left his home in Bridgeton, New Jersey, to go to work. Despite it being his daughter’s third birthday, he never returned to his wife and two daughters.
At the time of his disappearance, Gilman was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. After searching for him for seven years, his family had him declared legally dead. The truth about what had happened to him wasn’t revealed until 36 years later, on the same day he had vanished.
Gilman later explained that on the day he disappeared, he had gone to Philadelphia and wandered around aimlessly. It was then that he realized he had no recollection of his own identity. He adopted the name “Bob Greene” and worked as a carpenter, though he couldn’t remember anything from his life before 1955.
In 1985, Gilman visited Shiloh, New Jersey, near Bridgeton, and some memories began to resurface. However, it wasn’t until a few years later, when he applied for social security, that he started searching for his real identity.
In 1989, Gilman finally uncovered his true identity. Three years after that, he reunited with his family. He often wishes he could remember the missing years, feeling that he’ll never recover those lost moments.
2. Edgar Latulip
On September 2, 1986, Edgar Latulip, a 21-year-old man with developmental delays, walked away from his group home in Kitchener, Ontario, leaving his medication behind. Authorities believed he boarded a bus headed for Niagara Falls, Ontario, which was about 90 minutes away.
Beyond this, the police were uncertain about his whereabouts. They speculated that he may have traveled to Niagara Falls to take his own life. Edgar’s mother, however, feared that his developmental challenges made him vulnerable to exploitation, possibly leading to abuse or even murder.
In reality, Latulip was alive and had indeed gone to Niagara Falls. Along the way, however, he suffered a head injury, which caused him to lose all memory of his name and personal identity. For the next 30 years, he lived under a different name in St. Catharines, a nearby city.
In January 2016, during a session with a social worker, Latulip mentioned that he thought his name was Edgar Latulip. The social worker did a search and came across an article from a 2014 Niagara Falls newspaper that told the story of his past.
The police interviewed Latulip and conducted a DNA test, which confirmed that his true identity was Edgar Latulip. Soon after, his mother was contacted with the news. Overwhelmed with joy, she began making plans to meet him as quickly as possible.
1. Jack Duffey
In May of 1941, a 13-year-old boy was found riding a blue bicycle near Rochelle, Illinois. He had no memory of how he got there or even who he was. After forming a bond with a local family, he stayed with them for three years, assuming the name ‘Gerald Smith.’ Eventually, he secured a job as a truck driver.
Twelve years after he lost his memory, Smith was traveling across the country with trucker Albert H. Gargione. Smith confessed that he had no recollection of anything before the day he had found himself on the bicycle. Intrigued, Gargione took it upon himself to investigate Smith’s past.
On December 30, 1943, he approached the missing persons division of the police for assistance. He also reached out to the Chicago Daily News, which published an article about Gerald Smith. The story included three details that Smith could recall—the name “Betty Shumaker,” the address “426 Erie Avenue,” and the date “June 26, 1927.”
Following the publication of the article, a woman named Betty Peterson contacted the newspaper, revealing that her maiden name had been Betty Shumaker. She had once resided at 4622 West Erie Avenue. Hoping to help uncover the mystery, the newspaper arranged for her to meet the man who identified himself as Gerald Smith.
Upon meeting Smith, Peterson immediately exclaimed, “You’re Jack Duffey, I’d recognize you anywhere.” The two had crossed paths 13 years earlier at a two-week summer camp in Wisconsin. Peterson also remembered that Jack had been from Rockford, Illinois.
The police checked their records and discovered that 13-year-old Jack Duffey had been reported missing on May 19, 1941. He was last seen riding a blue bicycle, en route to his aunt’s farm.
On January 13, 1953, nearly 13 years after his disappearance, Jack was finally reunited with his mother and sister. They instantly recognized him. Others present at the reunion also observed the striking resemblance among the three family members. As for the third clue Duffey had remembered, it was his birth date.
