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A California woman is set to be reunited with her brother who went missing 25 years ago after she spotted him in a USA TODAY article, the Lassen County Sheriff's Office announced on its Facebook account Monday (November 25).
The woman's friend sent her the article, which sought to identify an unknown Los Angeles County hospital patient, according to the department. The patient, who is non-verbal and couldn't communicate his name, was discovered in South Los Angeles on April 15 and taken to the St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood.
The hospital's social services were unable to contact the patient's family members until the sister told police that she believed the unidentified man was her brother who went missing in 1999, which was confirmed by a fingerprint test. The department opted not to publicly identify the siblings out privacy for the family.
"Deputy [Derek] Kennemore recontacted the woman and informed her that, with the assistance of LAPD, we were able to positively identify the man as her brother. The family will be reunited soon. Names in this case have been withheld for family privacy," the department wrote in its Facebook post. "The Lassen County Sheriff’s Office would like to commend Deputy Kennemore on his tenacity with this case. We would also like to thank the Los Angles Police Department for their assistance in identifying the missing man and closing out this 25 year old case."
