A public appeal by a woman who turned up in southern California with nearly total amnesia five months ago has borne fruit, with her nephew identifying her from an online news report and alerting other family members.
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Manetta was found semi-conscious on a street near the beach on February 1 in the town of Carlsbad, California, about 30 miles north of San Diego, and firefighters called to the scene reported she did not know her own name.
Doctors told her she was likely suffering from ” retrograde amnesia ” – a type of memory-loss that can occur with the onset of a disease.
Her Facebook page, set up with assistance from a ex- nurse who got involved in the case, said her prayers had been answered. But she has two older sisters, in Maryland and Colorado.
She was first recognized from a newscast picture by her nephew, who called his mother, who in turn contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and with help from local police and Manetta’s caregivers she was put in touch with a sister in Maryland, KSND-TV reported.
The woman, who speaks English and some French, wrote online that she feels a connection with Australia. “We were all sobbing”.
“I’m hoping that someone sees me… and my family immediately says, ‘There she is!'” the woman said. She remembers eating breakfast at a seaside organic restaurant near Perth and swimming in a saltwater pool.
“I have this dream of this bloke in my dreams all the time”, she said. She said she was recently discharged from the hospital after undergoing surgery to remove the tumor and lost her hair during chemotherapy. Her prognosis was not good, she said.
KNSD reported that Manetta wanted to thank the millions of people around the world who saw her story and prayed and offered helped with leads and suggestions.
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This undated image provided by Interpol shows the then unidentified woman in the hospital after being found in Carlsbad, Calif. The woman who was found in February 2015 says she can’t recall her identity.
