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A man who went missing 25 years ago and is set to be reunited with his family after he turned up in a hospital was traveling the US in a van when he vanished.
Thomas Edward Manizak, now 53, nicknamed ‘Rumplestiltskin’, was on his way to Newport, Oregon, when he was last heard from on July 30, 1999, aged 28.
He called his mother from a truck stop east of Twin Falls, Idaho, as he did at least twice a week from the road to assure her he was safe and on his way to Newport.
But she never heard from her son again in her lifetime, as Manizak’s cousin said on Saturday: ‘I wish his mom was still with us.’
Manizak was living in Doyle, California, with his mother, whom he was said to be very close with ‘every few months when he was not on the road’, before he began his trek.
He was driving through Idaho, Oregon, and Montana in his brown/copper 1970 Ford van, with California license number 87647D.
What happened to him during his 25 years off the grid is unknown, as he was unable to communicate when he was found in South Los Angeles on April 15.
He was brought to the St Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, and transferred to another hospital in LA in July.
A clue as to why he may be non-verbal was that the missing persons report at the time said he was on disability due to his diabetes, which required two insulin injections a day.
‘Because of his diabetes, he would renew his insulin supplies at clinics in the towns he traveled through,’ his Doe Network listing read.
‘He did not care properly for his diabetes, and may have slipped into a diabetic coma… He has not claimed his disability checks, or used his medical card for diabetic supplies.’
Manizak was said at the time to love traveling around the country in his van, camping out each night, somewhere off a highway, preferring dirt roads among the trees.
He had camping equipment with him and was very friendly, often picking up hitchhikers.
Manizak was listed as having brown hair, green eyes, and standing 6ft, 1in, at 150lbs when he disappeared. By the time he was found, he had white hair and only weighed 125lbs.
The Nor-Cal Alliance for the Missing, which had been searching for him since 2016 along with a since-deleted Facebook group, celebrated him being found.
‘While Tommy is non-verbal and facing medical challenges, his safe return to the embrace of his family is a testament to resilience, faith, and the power of community,’ it said.
‘Tommy’s return proves that miracles can happen.’
After he was finally found, the hospital’s social services department spent six months unable to reach any of his family.
But on November 22, a woman informed Lassen County Deputy Sheriff Derek Kennemore that the patient was her brother after she saw a picture of him in a USA Today article from May 9.
‘The woman informed Sheriff’s Deputy, Derek Kennemore, that she had been sent an article from USA Today that had a picture of a man that she believed to be her missing brother,’ Lassen County Sheriff’s Office Captain Mike Carney said on Tuesday.
‘The woman explained that her brother was reported missing in 1999 from Doyle, Ca. The man had not been heard from since.
‘The USA Today article was printed in April 2024 and was requesting assistance in identifying the man, who had been admitted to a hospital in the Los Angeles, Ca area.’
Officials soon contacted a detective from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit to confirm his identity.
The detective then acquired fingerprints from the patient at the LA hospital and ran a check.
Results showed that he was indeed the woman’s brother who was reported missing nearly three decades ago.
Carney said the family would be reunited soon, and said the sister was ‘super excited’.
‘She was very appreciative that we took the time just to follow up on it. She was over the moon and anxious to call other family members to let them know,’ he said.
‘It’s gonna make their Thanksgiving that much better.
‘Be tenacious when it comes to these things, because there are family members that want answers.’
