His earliest memory is of picking himself up off the ground early on the morning on Sept. 10, in front of the World Trade Center on Broadway and 16th Street in downtown Denver.
Everything before that moment is black.
The man whom police are calling Al has no idea who he is or where he is from. Mental health experts have verified the man is suffering from retrograde amnesia.
Today Al spoke to the press hoping that someone will recognize him and be able to help him piece together his past.
When Al came to, he knew he needed help. He wandered around for hours looking for a hospital. He finally found Denver Health Medical Center where he was admitted, but doctors found no evidence of physical injury or drugs or alcohol in his system.
Al wasn’t carrying a wallet; the only things in his pockets were a cigarette lighter and $8 in cash. Police ran his fingerprints through FBI databases, but his record is clean. He is thought to be between 35 and 40 years old.
As Al nervously addressed the TV cameras, his hands shook and his voice wavered. He was wearing the same ring, watch, yellow baseball cap and glasses that he was wearing when he was admitted to Denver Health.
“I feel totally lost,” he said. “I feel totally alone, very depressed, very anxious about everything.”
Although Al remembers how to talk, read and write, he says he has no recollection of current events, much less how he ended up in a street in Denver.
During hypnosis therapy and an interview conducted using the sedative known as “truth serum,” it came out that Al may have had a wife and two children who were all killed by a drunken driver in April.
The accident is thought to have taken place in the New York area, where Al may have worked as an artist.
As Al recalled these therapy sessions during the press conference, his eyes filled with tears, and he looked down at his trembling hands.
Denver police are contacting departments in other states for help identifying fatal accidents that may help identify Al. Police have unsuccessfully tried to trace where his watch and ring were purchased.
Al has made a couple of sketches of the Denver skyline from the psychiatric hospital where he is staying. Several people remarked to him that he has talent, making him think perhaps he was an artist before he lost his memory.
When asked what he sees when he looks in the mirror, Al responded: “I just see someone who’s lost. I don’t know who I am or what kind of person I am.”
Al hopes today’s press conference will help him identify his family and friends.
“I want my past. I want who I was. I don’t care about anything else.”
Staff writer Katharine Bernuth can be reached at 303-954-1762 or at kbernuth@denverpost.com.
