Mystery Boy Emerges from German Forest
No memory of pre-forest life
Photo from the London Daily Telegraph
Europe is captivated by the story of a boy, roughly 17 years old, who walked out of a forest in Germany and walked all the way to Berlin.
The boy told police he’d been living in the forest for five years with his father, and that they’d gone there after his mother died in a car crash. When his father died, after falling in the woods, the boy buried him in a shallow grave and then walked for two weeks to reach the city. He speaks English and some German, and says he has no recollection of his life before the forest.
German police say his story is credible.
The boy, who calls himself Ray but doesn’t seem to know his last name, said he and his father had slept in tents and had hunted and foraged for food.
The London Daily Telegraph says police speculate that the boy may have been living in the Bayerischer national park, south of Berlin, that he arrived at City Hall wearing winter clothes and carrying a knapsack containing a tent, sleeping bag and some survival tools, including a compass, and that he appeared disheveled but in good health. The BBC also has continuing news.