Niagara Regional Police Constable Phil Gavin said Edgar Latulip was aged 21 when he took a bus to the Niagara region, where he suffered a head injury that robbed him of much of his memory.
Mr Gavin says Mr Latulip went on to live in the area for the next 30 years, but recently began having memory flashes that led him to believe that he was living under the wrong name.
Mr Latulip shared his concerns with a social worker, who searched his name and discovered that he was the subject of a long-standing missing person’s investigation — just 120km away.
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Mr Gavin says Mr Latulip’s identity has now been confirmed through a DNA test and police are preparing to help him make contact with his surviving relatives. “I don’t think anyone that I’ve spoken to has heard of a case like this other than a story made for TV,” said Mr Gavin.
Mr Latulip was living in a local group home at the time of his disappearance. He was developmentally delayed and functioned at the cognitive level of a child.
He had made suicide attempts in the past, and family members feared he had travelled to Niagara Falls for another attempt when he vanished in 1986.
His mother, Silvia Wilson, who later moved to Ottawa, described her surprise when she received the news by telephone from a police detective.
“I don’t know what to think. I was just kind of blown away,” said Ms Wilson, 76, describing her son as a troubled boy.
“I want to talk to him and help him out any way I can. I just want to see him.”
Mr Gavin, who said he could not comment on Mr Latulip’s life prior to his disappearance, said he did make it to the Falls before travelling to nearby St Catharines.
Mr Gavin said it’s unknown how or when Mr Latulip received his head injury, nor when his memory began to return.
The first evidence of those recollections came in January when Mr Latulip revealed suspicions of his past identity to a local social worker.
A Google search turned up a newspaper profile, prompting her to reach out to police. Mr Gavin said the results of Mr Latulip’s DNA test came back, leaving the 50-year-old with much to process.
“He’s got a lot to take in to remember his old identity,” he said. “There’s nerves. You haven’t seen your family members in all these years and now a reunification process. I think it’s a lot to take in.”
For investigators, it was a case that began before the technological revolution and — combined with the fact that Mr Latulip lived a low-profile life off the social media radar — made it more difficult to solve than recent disappearances.
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