After 30 Years, A Man Solved His Own Missing Person’s Case

On September 2nd, 1986, Edgar Latulip, a 21-year-old man with developmental delays and the mental capacity of someone in their early teens, took a bus from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada to Niagara Falls. 

Edgar was struggling with depression and had been residing in a group home at the time he went missing. His home in Kitchener was approximately an hour and a half away from Niagara Falls.

Edgar boarded the bus without luggage, and it was assumed he had plans to commit suicide as he had made attempts in the past, but despite extensive searches of the area, he was never located.

Police were unable to rule out the involvement of foul play in the case, as nobody was ever found. Following his departure from the bus, he simply vanished without a trace, remaining missing for three decades.

In 2016, authorities were taken aback by a phone call from a social worker in St. Catharines, Ontario, reporting that a man had contacted them claiming to be Edgar Latulip. Astonishingly, this individual had been residing under a false identity a mere twenty kilometers from the location of Edgar's original disappearance.

Having sustained a head injury in 1986, the man had experienced significant memory loss. Over time, however, he began to recall fragments of his past, leading him to contact his social worker and express his suspicion that he may have once gone by a different name.

The social worker, upon conducting a quick online search of the name in question, was startled to discover that he was, in fact, a missing person.

Upon being questioned by authorities, the man agreed to provide a DNA sample for testing. The subsequent results ultimately confirmed that this individual was indeed Edgar, who had seemingly found his way back to himself despite the passage of thirty years.

Having reached his fifties, Edgar had been residing under an assumed identity in St. Catharines, living a quiet and unassuming existence since his memory loss.

Following his discovery, Edgar was joyfully reunited with his family, who were residing in Kitchener. His mother, in particular, was overcome with emotion upon seeing her son again after so many years.

The family had never lost hope of finding Edgar. The Kitchener Police Department noted that they had never before solved a missing person's case after such a prolonged period with the individual being found alive.

“I’ve been a police officer for 18 years, and this is something I’ve seen on TV but never been a part of,” Niagara Regional Police Const. Philip Gavin told the Star on Monday. “Absolutely, this is quite a rare one.”                                            

Read More:  Missing People: True Stories of Unexplained Disappearances (True Stories of People Gone Missing and Never Found)

The majority of missing people are white, male adults and missing children are rightfully more covered by the media as studies show that the first three hours after a child is missing is when they are most likely to be murdered if killing the child is the intent of the abductor.

With increased technology, improvements in DNA evidence gathering, and better law enforcement communication and cooperation, solving missing person cases should have gotten easier and been more successful over time. However, solving these cases is still difficult and many are never found.

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• The missing colonists of roanoke island
• The heiress who went shopping and never returned
• The English lord who disappeared after a night of bloodshed
• The tragic mystery of three missing Australian children
• The man who vanished from a cruise ship
• And many more.

Missing People: True Stories of Unexplained Disappearances (True Stories of People Gone Missing and Never Found)