'Forest Boy' Ray Revealed as Missing 20-year-old Dutch Man Robin van Helsum
The English-speaking teenager that was found wandering into Berlin's city nine months ago is reportedly a 20-year-old Dutch man who went missing from the city of Hengelo in September 2011.
Robin van Helsum was last seen travelling with a friend to Berlin. He left a letter behind before leaving home.
"We are 100 percent certain that he is this 20-year-old boy, because his step-mother positively identified him," a police spokeswoman told Die Weltnewspaper.
"We have made contact with his family and friends," she said. "A photo where you could see him with a chain round his neck showing his name provided the proof. We are very glad that he has been found."
German police has recently released his photos in a final attempt to identify him.
Dutch police were tipped about the man's identity after a his step-mother contacted the news broadcaster NOS, saying she identified the young man.
Dubbed "forest boy", he presented himself to Berlin authorities in September claiming he had been living for the last five years in the woods with his father.
He told authorities used to call him "Ray" and that he was born in 1994. He claimed his mother, Doreen, died in a car accident when he was 12 and after which his father decided to live as a hermit in the forest.
After his father died in August, 2011, he reportedly walked five days before ending up in Berlin. Heclaimed to have buried the father in the forest.
Social services at a youth housing project taking care of him noted that he easily adapted to technological life in Berlin, using a laptop and his cell phone.
"Everything gives the impression that he was not far away from civilization for years," Thomas Neuendorf, a police spokesman, said.
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