A man who found himself in Denver not knowing who he was or how he got here was identified Sunday after his parents saw a television report about him.
Denver police said the man known only as “Al” is actually Jeff Ingram, 40, of Olympia, Washington.
Ingram suffers from a rare medical disorder known as dissociative fugue, police said.
“He has a long way to go,” said Det. Ken Klaus, who helped identify Ingram.
Klaus said Ingram is relieved about discovering who he is, but is still extremely frustrated because he has little or no memory and can’t even identify photographs of relatives that have been shown to him.
“I’m not a doctor – all I can tell you is I wasn’t surprised by his reaction,” Klaus said. “He cried.”
Dissociative fugue is a disorder in which a person can’t remember some or all of his past life. It affects about 2 of 1,000 people in the United States, according to medical manuals, and tends to surface in people who’ve been through a traumatic event like a natural disaster, a horrific accident or war. Dissociative fugue can occur once or multiple times.
Ingram had been missing since Sept. 6 when he started a road trip from his home in Olympia, Wash., to visit relatives in Alberta, Canada, said Virginia Quiñones, a Denver police spokeswoman.
Olympia is more than 1,300 miles from Denver.
Ingram’s car, a blue Dodge Neon with Alberta license plate CTE351 has not been found, police said.
His parents saw a weekend television report about Al and recognized him, Quiñones said. They called his girlfriend, Penny Hansen, in Olympia, and she contacted the Denver Police Department.
Hansen e-mailed photos to Denver police and described a scar on Ingram’s arm that helped identify him.
Hansen, reached by telephone Sunday in Washington, declined comment.
But she told KOMO News in Seattle, “I am positive that’s Jeff. What surprised me was, he’s always told me he would never shave his goatee and mustache – never. But he did.”
She told the station that Ingram had a similar amnesia incident in the mid 1990s, and that she would fly to Denver to get him.
Last week, before being identified, Ingram said he awoke the morning of Sept. 10 on a sidewalk in front of a downtown office building. He had no wallet or identification, only $8 in his pocket.
Not knowing who he was or how he came to be in Denver, he walked to Denver Health Medical Center. Staff there began the process of helping him, which included physical and mental evaluations.
“I believe it is a medical condition,” Klaus said. “I don’t believe he tried to hide from anyone for anything.”
Prior to discovering Ingram’s identity police ran his fingerprints through a national crime data base and received no hits, Quiñones said.
Ingram did not appear at a press conference Sunday but was still in Denver under medical care.
Police declined comment on whether Ingram has suffered from the abnormality in the past. They also declined to talk specifically about Ingram’s life, citing privacy issues.
They did say Hansen described Ingram as a fun-loving man who enjoys practical jokes and loves to bake.
Klaus, who specializes in missing persons cases, said he’s pleased to help “give this man his life back.”
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
