A Canadian man solved his own cold case — by suddenly remembering his identity 30 years after he disappeared.
Edgar Latulip was 21 years old when he vanished from a group home in Kitchener, Ontario, in September 1986.
The last time his mom, Sylvia Wilson, saw her son, he was in a hospital after a failed suicide attempt, and cops figured Wilson, who has the cognitive abilities of a child, traveled to Niagara Falls to kill himself.
His mom suspected foul play, thinking for decades that he may have been abused because of his mental illness, or accidentally killed and his body hidden, she told The Guelph Mercury.
“When Edgar disappeared, I became quite sick. I had to take a leave of absence from work. I was near a nervous breakdown,” she said two years ago. “Having an answer would mean closure.”
But on Wednesday, Waterloo regional police announced that Latulip was alive and well, living 80 miles away from where he disappeared.
His cold case got a big break in January after Latulip told a social worker in St. Catharines that he remembered who he was.
A DNA test performed last week confirmed that it was in fact him.
Police concluded that Latulip had some kind of head injury that caused him to forget who he was.
“It’s the only case, that I know of, where we’ve been able to find someone who has been missing for this period of time,” Detective Duane Gingerich told CTV News.
Officials are now working on arranging a reunion between Latulip and his family.
“They’re obviously very happy about it and they’re making plans to get together with Edgar and speak with him further,” Gingerich said.
Wilson told CTV she hadn’t spoken with her son yet, but was overwhelmed to know he was alive.