THE HAGUE — The young man dubbed “forest boy Ray” after he turned to German officials nine months ago saying he had lived in the woods for years is a Dutch citizen named Robin van Helsum, police said Friday.
Van Helsum was identified after a Dutch woman phoned authorities saying she recognized a photograph of the 20-year-old that was released by German police Tuesday.
Berlin police spokesperson Michael Maas said van Helsum had made “fools” of German authorities, adding that he may be required to pay the cost of the investigation into his identity.
“This is no joke anymore. He made right fools of us. The costs could come down to him,” Maas told Die Welt.
Authorities turned to the public for help in identifying van Helsum after failing to establish his identify. Police said van Helsum was from the northwestern town of Hengelo in the Netherlands.
“We are 100 percent certain that he is this 20-year-old boy because his stepmother positively identified him,” a Dutch police spokeswoman told the newspaper. “We have made contact with his family and friends.”
Van Helsum showed up at Berlin city hall on Sept. 5 last year. He spoke English and just a few words of German, and gave his name only as “Ray.”
At the time, he said he was born on June 20, 1994. He told authorities that he had lived for five years in a forest with his father, until his father died in August.
Van Helsum then told authorities that he had buried his father “in a hole in the forest underneath some stones” and walked to Berlin.
He was unable to explain how his father died, nor where the body could be found. Authorities have since failed to locate the father’s body.
After a brief stint with Berlin’s emergency youth services, van Helsum was placed in an institution for assisted living and assigned a legal guardian, AFP reported.
Youth services and police had “great doubts” about the story he told and decided to publicize his picture asking for any information that could help them solve the case.