Missing man reappears with no memory

by Jarrett Martineau | December 4, 2007 at 03:22 pm

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Whether John Darwin canoed away, or wandered off into the desert Paris, Texas-style, what is it about the figure of the amnesiac -- adrift in a fugue state -- that so readily captures our imaginations?

Do we secretly harbour a desire to do the same? To forget ourselves completely, to disappear and, ultimately, to return to society deprived of identity and memory...with no Facebook traces of our former selves?

In March 2002, John Darwin's trashed canoe was found on a beach near Hartlepool. Teesside, England. Darwin, then 51, was presumed to be dead. On Saturday though, he wandered into a London police station with no memory of where he's been for the last five years. From the BBC News:

"The family have been informed. We have no account of what has happened in the last five years. He walked into a police station and said 'I think I am a missing person...'

Mr. Darwin was examined shortly after speaking to police in London and showed no signs of illness.

He left the station with his two sons who live in Hampshire and Berkshire.