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Posted: 13-06-2012 08:01 Post subject:

Photograph released of Berlin 'forest boy' nine months after he walked out of woods
Berlin Police have released the first photograph of the mysterious "forest boy" who turned to authorities nine months ago with claims he had been living wild in the woods for five years and had did not know who he was.
By Fiona Govan
7:29PM BST 12 Jun 2012

"We really have no idea of his true identity and hope that releasing this photo will help solve the mystery of the boy known only as Ray," Micheal Gassen of the Berlin Police force told The Daily Telegraph.
"Who knows the person shown in this picture? Who can give any information about his identity? Who can give any information about the person's possible relatives?" read an appeal released with the photograph on Tuesday.

Despite thorough investigations police have been unable to identify the boy, who turned up in Berlin Town hall last September speaking English with a slight accent and only a few words of German.
The boy has unwaveringly stuck to his original story claiming that he had been living in the forest with his father for around five years after his mother died in a car crash.
He said he knew only that his father was called Ryan, and his mother Doreen but had no idea where his family originally came from.

Ray told police he had walked north for five days to reach Berlin after his father died in a fall and he buried him "in a hole in the forest underneath some stones".

Police sought help from Interpol to help identify the teenager and received dozens of letters from across the world from people believing he may have been a lost relative, but all were discounted.

Despite exhaustive investigations that included DNA analysis and linguistic studies police said they were no closer to finding the truth and "had great doubts about his story".

"We have conducted all the investigations we know how," Thomas Neuendorf of Berlin Police told local media.
"We have compared his DNA with international missing persons lists, we've made public appeals, we've sent his fingerprints around the world to see if he was involved in anything picked up by authorities anywhere but have come up with nothing."

At first police released a photofit of the boy in the hope that someone would recognise him but they were unable to do more without his consent.
"He has only now – after intense discussions – finally given us permission to release a photograph of him and we are appealing for information about who he is," the police spokesman said.

The boy said he thought his birth date was 20 June 1994, which would mean he turns 18 years old next week. He is being cared for by social services at a youth housing project and is attending a school in Berlin.
"At some point he will have to be given a family name, a nationality and an official date of birth – that is the law in this country," said Mr Neuendorf.

Police have consistently voiced scepticism of his account. "There is something strange about this whole story," Mr Neuendorf said.
"Whenever we want to go into details with him, he breaks it off, saying both of his parents are dead, and that no one else knows him. He seems to have an astounding lack of interest in finding out who he is."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/9327712/Photograph-released-of-Berlin-forest-boy-nine-months-after-he-walked-out-of-woods.html

Posted: 13-06-2012 08:20 Post subject:

What a bizarre case. My initial thought was that this kid had had some kind of intense psychological trauma that caused him to block out most of his history. However, from what one can glean from the reports, it seems he's psychologically 'normal'. I doubt very much his story about living in the forest for 5 years, but maybe he believes it himself - I'd be interested in knowing exactly what testing/investigation has been done. For example, which experts have been used to identify his accent (is he an native English speaker?), the level of DNA testing(which should narrow down to an extent an ethnic group and therefore location). His facial features do look more Slavic than your bread-and-butter Englishman, IMO.

Reminds me a bit of the piano man story from a few years back, although I seem to remember that having a conventional end, having been simply an identifiable missing person.

Posted: 13-06-2012 15:32 Post subject:

Posted: 13-06-2012 15:40 Post subject:

At what point did the boy recall his precise birth date?

I'm curious as to what factors pertaining to whether and / or how the German officials treat him might change once he's 18. Or is 18 not a significant age point in relevant German laws and policies?

Posted: 13-06-2012 17:40 Post subject:

Posted: 15-06-2012 12:04 Post subject:

The English-speaking 'Forest Boy' who said he lived in a German wood for five years is actually Dutch and only left home five days before his 'discovery', it has been claimed.

German police said the man's stepmother had identified the 'boy', who had called himself 'Ray' and said he had been living rough with his father in the wilderness before wandering into Berlin in September, as being called Robin van Helsum.

He is 20-years-old, and not 17 as he had previously stated, and went missing from his home in Hengelo, near the Germany city of Gronau, less than one week before he told his story.

Friends also said he left home because of 'personal problems' and to 'start a new life'.

Officers said Robin's family identified him from pictures released earlier this week.

A source said: 'We have spoken to his family and his friends and we have seen a photo where he has a chain with his name on which confirms who he is.
'This w
as a mystery for us and we are pleased that it has been solved.'
A Hengelo police spokesman added: 'We are very happy that he's been found.

'We are 100 per cent certain that we are dealing with the 20-year-old boy, who his stepmother unambiguously identified.'

And they warned that, if the incident proves to be a hoax, then Robin may face a substantial legal bill for wasting police time.

Police spokesman Michael Maass told Die Welt: 'It was a really frustrating case and took up a lot of time. That will have to be paid for and that will eventually end up at his door.'

'It's not longer a joke. If the story is made up then he deliberately took us for fools, and he could be liable for the costs.'

Police had already worked out that the boy was not a native English speaker and estimated that he was about 17. But he had refused to allow his photo to be issued to the world which meant that officials had not been able to come further in identifying him.

According to German news agency DPA, Robin VH was last seen in Hengelo on September 2, 2011, ahead of taking a trip to Berlin with a friend.
This was just days before he appeared at the city hall as 'Forest Boy'.

A school friend told Dutch broadcaster NOS: 'I am certain that is Robin. He had personal problems and that was his way of beginning a new life.'
Earlier this week, German police released the first picture of 'Forest Boy'.

They had been unable to identify him since he emerged in the German capital last September, and issued his picture in a bid to jog people's memory and maybe throw up some leads.

The 'boy' said his father called him 'Ray' and that he was born June 20, 1994, but claimed not to know his last name or where he is from.
He said his mother, Doreen, died in a car accident when he was 12 and after that he and his father, Ryan, took to the forest.

They wandered using maps and a compass, staying in tents or caves overnight, he added.

And he told authorities that after his father died in August 2011, he buried him in the forest and then walked five days north before ending up in Berlin, and showed up at city hall.

Investigators had been unable to confirm any details about a fatal car accident that matched up with Ray's story, however, and weren't able to find the body of the father - raising 'serious doubts' about the story.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2159725/Forest-Boy-unmasked-Police-say-actually-20-year-old-Dutch-man-called-Robin.html#ixzz1xrJ6GlYL

Posted: 15-06-2012 14:18 Post subject:

If I recall correctly, it was German law or policy (perhaps specific to the social services agency with whom he was placed) that prevented distribution of his photo back when he mysteriously 'surfaced' in Berlin. If not for that legal obstruction, this case might have been resolved in days rather than months.

I suspect (a) the relevant law or policy will be debated shortly, and (b) there's going to be some inter-agency infighting before this is over ...

Posted: 15-06-2012 14:33 Post subject:

Strangely, when I saw the photo, I thought he might be Dutch, or possibly Russian and he looked to cheerful to be Russian.

The fact that his English was really good with just the hint of of an accent, was a nudge in the Dutch direction, too.

Laughing

Posted: 15-06-2012 15:29 Post subject:

Posted: 15-06-2012 15:36 Post subject:

Posted: 15-06-2012 19:09 Post subject:

According to the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant, the parents had not reported him as missing.

Posted: 15-06-2012 23:11 Post subject:

Posted: 16-06-2012 01:54 Post subject:

Modern times are hard on mysteries, its long been recognized that 'Kasper Hauser' was a fraud and an imposter. Dead giveaway, his denial of inflicting the stab wound that killed him, before anyone asked him any questions. Classic sociopathic behavior.

As for 'Ray', we knew it was a crock, and today, a crock won't last long, information moves too quickly. Notice the scanty record of real posers in the last half century.

The 'Unknown Man' aka Somerton Man or Talam Shud, is one of the last, we must savor it.

I think Cthulhu did it.

F'taghn!

Posted: 16-06-2012 06:08 Post subject:

Just before I went out this morning I noticed one of those lines at the bottom of the tv saying Forest boy has been proved a fraud but I haven't seen anything else since I came home. Maybe be on the news tonight.

Posted: 16-06-2012 08:42 Post subject:

Forest Boy finally identified and admits: 'I made it all up'
The mystery of the "forest boy" who turned up in Berlin nine months ago claiming to have spent five years living wild in the woods has finally been solved with police identifying him as a runaway who made up his incredible story.
By Fiona Govan
11:10AM BST 15 Jun 2012

He is Robin Van Helsum, a 20-year old from Hengelo in the Netherlands who was reported missing by his family last September, just days before he turned up in Berlin with his incredible story.
"He has admitted that he is a fraud," Thomas Neuendorf of the Berlin Police told the Daily Telegraph.

Berlin police released a photograph of the boy, who identified himself only as "Ray", this week in the hope of finally solving a mystery that made headlines across the world and had baffled detectives for months.
School friends contacted Dutch police after recognising him from the photograph and his stepmother, seemingly his only family, was contacted to confirm it.

"We went to him with the new information this morning and he said: 'OK, you got me – I am Robin and I made the whole story up," Mr Neuendorf said on Friday.

"It seems he came straight from his home town to Berlin by train and wanted a new life. He didn't go anywhere near a forest."
"He hasn't said why he made up the story or where he came up with the details. But we always had our doubts and now, finally it's over for us," said Mr Neuendorf.

Police say he may now face charges of fraud. "He has been looked after by German authorities since September. He received money, clothes, housing and education and all because he told us lies. There may well be a case of fraud."
Reports said his care cost German taxpayers around £5,000 a month.

The boy, dubbed "waldjunge" – meaning forest boy – by the German press, walked into Berlin Town on September 5 and asked for help.
Speaking in English, with a slight accent, he told authorities: "I don't know who I am, I'm all alone in the world. Please help me."

He then told police that he knew only that his name was Ray, that he was 17 years old and that he had been living wild with his father Ryan since his mother, Doreen, was killed in a car crash five years earlier.
He claimed to have walked north for five days to reach Berlin after burying his father in a shallow grave when he died following a fall.

The boy was taken into care and police launched an investigation to discover his true identity. DNA tests and linguistic studies failed to shed any light on who he was and Interpol requests to match him to known missing persons failed.

"We can only assume that because he was actually 20 years old and had no criminal record the link wasn't made," said Mr Neuendorf, who had consistently raised doubts over the boy's story.
"It seems he only has a stepmother who he has now spoken to on the telephone but he doesn't want to return home.

"He is an adult and this is Europe so he can stay in Berlin if he wants but he will no longer be the responsibility of the state," he said. "At last, we can close the book on this case."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/9333519/Forest-Boy-finally-identified-and-admits-I-made-it-all-up.html