When the blond-haired man with an impressive mustache first wandered out of Seattle's Discovery Park weeks ago, he left Seattle police with a mystery. Although well-dressed and carrying $600 dollars hidden in a sock, he was unable to recall his name or any details about his life. All that he could say was that he was "totally lost and frightened". Appearing to be in his fifties, the man (later named "John Doe") was remarkably well-educated and fluent in English, French and German. Despite remembering that he is a widower and has traveled extensively, he is unable to remember anything before waking up in the park on July 30 with no wallet or other identification. Treated at the Swedish Medical Centre's Cherry Hill campus, doctors found no sign of obvious trauma but were confident that he wasn't faking his amnesia.
It was only after an extensive media campaign including social media and Internet chat groups that he was finally identified as Edward Lighthart. An international public relations consultant, Lighthart has three university degrees and worked as an educator in Slovakia, Austria, and China. Although "John Doe" has acknowledged his identity, there is still no "connection emotionally" between him and his name and he has still been unable to explain how he ended up in Seattle.
While cases of dissociative fugue are fairly rare, there are usually triggered by a previous stressful event and full recovery may not occur. In some extreme examples, fugue sufferers can lose their identity for long periods of time and even start new lives under a different name. Diagnosis usually involves ruling out other possible conditions that may be causing the amnesia and helping the victim regain lost memories with cues from their past.
Only time will tell whether Edward Lighthart will be able to return to his old life.
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