Pierre April: How Unsolved Mysteries Helped Solve His Amnesia Case
YouTubeDespite being an amnesia victim, Pierre April correctly assumed that the library card on his person belonged to him.
Unlike the case of Belinda Lin, the case of Pierre April was one that Unsolved Mysteries helped solve that had a relatively happy ending.
In 1992, a man woke up in a ditch in Southern California, with no recollection of who he was or how he got there. All he had to his name was a duffel bag and a Boston Public Library card that was issued to a man named Pierre April. This, perhaps naturally, led him to believe that he was Pierre April.
Unfortunately, that was the extent of what he knew about himself, as he said on an Unsolved Mysteries episode that aired on September 23, 1992.
He explained: “Then I realized I couldn’t phone anybody and that’s when I realized I didn’t know anybody, including me. Those first few minutes, you’re literally nothing and you feel so empty. It’s very lonely and painful to be empty. It… must be me. It’s in my belongings, with my socks. It’s with my shirt. It’s with my things. I was so sure this city would bring everything back and it did not. I saw downtown and said nothing. I looked at the buildings and they meant nothing. And I walked the streets of the city for a long time.”
YouTubeA sketch that finally helped solve Pierre April’s mysterious case.
A sympathetic bus driver took him to the St. Vincent de Paul homeless shelter in San Diego. While there, he worked with medical professionals to recover his memory and even took up busking to make some money.
On his episode of Unsolved Mysteries, producers paired Pierre April with a sketch artist who drew pictures of people whom he may have remembered from his past, according to Screen Rant.
Right after his segment aired, a woman by the name of Carol called into the show’s tip line and confirmed that he was, in fact, Pierre April. She also said that April had parents and two siblings living in Canada — and that he had been missing for five months before he turned up on the show.
After April’s father helped jog his memory with photos, he was reunited with his family, and he eventually gained his memories back.
