When Indonesian police officer Abrip Asep went missing during the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, his family naturally assumed that he had died along with the 230,000 other victims of that disaster. Asep had been on duty in Indonesia's westernmost province, Aceh, as part of Brimob, Indonesia's Mobil Brigade Corps, when a 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of the island of Sumatra and sent hundred-foot waves to strike the shorelines. Though many thousands were known to have died, Asep's body was never found and family members were left with no answers about what happened to him. While his mother remained convinced that he was still alive, the rest of his extended family concluded that he must have died with so many others.
Until, that is, when photos of Asep were recently shared on a family group chat on social media, apparently by chance. Recognizing his picture, family members contacted Aceh Regional Police who then learned that he had been in the Zaenal Abidin Mental Hospital in Banda Aceh for the last sixteen years. "I couldn’t believe it," said one family member talking with the media. "17 years of no news and we thought that he passed away, we didn’t know he was still alive." According to doctors at the hospital, Asep had been traumatized by his experiences during the tsunami and was subsequently placed in the hospital though it remains a mystery why his family was never contacted.
"Even though he is experiencing mental illness due to the tsunami, his family is very grateful to have found him alive," said a spokesperson for the Aceh Regional Police. Despite his long hospital stay, he is reportedly in good health and has since been reunited with family members. News about Asep has left other families who lost relatives in the 2004 disaster wondering if more such cases will be found though, so far, none have been reported.
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