An amnesia sufferer who had been searching for his identity
for more than a month was back in Washington state with his fiancée on Tuesday,
but he still doesnt remember his past life or what happened, his mother said.
Jeffrey Alan Ingram, 40, was diagnosed in Denver with dissociative
fugue, a type of amnesia.
He has had similar bouts of amnesia in the
past, likely triggered by stress, once disappearing for nine months. When he
went missing this time, on Sept. 6, he had been on his way to Canada to visit a
friend who was dying of cancer, said his fiancée, Penny Hansen.
"I think
that the stress, the sadness, the grief of facing a best friend dying was
enough, and leaving me was enough to send him into an amnesia state," Hansen
told CBS affiliate KCNC-TV.
When Ingram found himself in Denver
on Sept. 10, he didnt know who he was. He said he walked around for about six
hours asking people for help, then ended up at a hospital, where police
spokeswoman Virginia Quinones said Ingram was diagnosed with dissociative fugue.
People with dissociative fugue typically appear fine but have
temporarily lost their sense of identity, are confused and impulsively travel
away from home. Experts say it is rare and typically is linked to severe stress.
Ingrams identity came to light last weekend after he appeared on
several news shows asking the public for help: "If anybody recognizes me, knows
who I am, please let somebody know."
"Pennys brother called her right
away and told her ‘Did you watch this newscast? and I think thats Jeff that
theyre showing on television,’" said Marilyn Meehan, a spokeswoman for Hansen.
Hansen had filed a missing person report after Ingram failed to show up
at her mothers home in Bellingham, Wash., on his way to Canada, but officials
searching for him had turned up nothing.
On Monday night, two Denver
police detectives accompanied Ingram on a flight to Seattle, where he was
reunited with Hansen.
His mother, Doreen Tompkins of Slave Lake,
Alberta, was in tears as she talked about the struggle her son and the family
still face.
"Its going to be very difficult again, but you know what, I
can do it," she told CTV News of Edmonton, Alberta. "I did it before, I can do
it again. Ill do it as many times as I have to just so I can have my son."
Ingram experienced an episode of amnesia in 1995 when he disappeared
during a trip to a grocery store. Nine months later, he was found in a Seattle
hospital, according to Thurston County, Wash., officials. His mother said he
never fully regained his memory.
