The heartwarming story of a California sister who found her missing brother 25 years after he vanished without a trace has taken a dark turn.
Thomas Manizak, now 53, was on his way to Newport, Oregon, when he was last heard from on July 30, 1999, aged 28.
Earlier this year, Marcella Nasseri, the sister of Manizak, came across a photograph in USA Today showing him in a hospital bed in California.
Manizak, now non-verbal, had been hospitalized at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood for several weeks after being discovered sitting on a curb in South Los Angeles. Hospital staff were eager to reunite him with a family member.
His sister, who lives 600 miles away in Lassen County, had been searching for unidentified remains until she saw the photo. She expressed joy at finding him alive on a GoFundMe page she created.
However, it has since emerged that Manizak is a convicted sex offender who was charged with lewd and lascivious acts and oral copulation with a child under the age of 14 in 1993, USA Today reported.
He served three years in prison and was ordered to add his name to the sex offender registry in Lassen County upon his release.
The family said what Manizak did was ‘sickening and horrible’ and caused a ‘huge heartache’ for them. But his sister added that ‘at the end of the day, he’s still my brother.’
Marcella Nasseri had been looking for her brother Thomas Manizak since 1999 when she stumbled across a photograph (pictured) published by USA Today
Manizak, 53, who was non-verbal, had been at the St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood for weeks and hospital staff were desperate to connect him to a loved one in May (pictured: Nasseri and a seven-year-old Thomas)
‘I’m not turning my back on my flesh and blood,’ she told USA Today. ‘I love him and I’ve been looking for 25 years – all the other stuff is outside noise, he’s my brother and I love him.’
Manizak skipped town a few years after being released from jail and failed to register as a sex offender in his new city, which is illegal under California law.
‘He went to Oregon and after that, according to his family, he was just kind of a free soul and he just floated around,’ said Lassen County Sheriff’s Department Captain Mike Carney.
Manizak, who was an avid camper, had last contacted his family in August 1999 after he called his mother from a truck stop in Twin Falls, Idaho. He typically phoned his mother twice a week and said he was on his way to Newport, Oregon.
He was last seen that July when he was 28-years-old.
Manizak was on disability due to a diabetes diagnosis and required two insulin injections per day. But throughout his 25-year disappearance, he did not use his medical card to get his insulin prescription or pick up his disability checks, according to USA Today.
Manizak was only identified after his sister spotted his picture online and called the police to alert them that he was her relative. They later learned of his crimes when they ran his name through the system.
Police were originally meant to fingerprint Manizak but failed to do so because he ‘wasn’t cooperative,’ according to Carney.
Manizak, who was an avid camper, had last contacted his family in August 1999 after he called his mother from a truck stop in Twin Falls, Idaho
Manizak skipped town a few years after being released from jail and failed to re-register as a sex offender in his new city, which is illegal under California law
Nasseri plans to fly to see her brother soon and is working to get him moved to a different hospital that is closer to her
‘We were told that he was unable to walk and was unable to talk, so I don’t know what happened to him,’ he told the outlet.
After learning her brother was alive, she sent him clothing, drawing pencils and a sketchpad ‘because he loved to draw’.
Nasseri plans to fly to see her brother soon and is working to get him moved to a different hospital that would be closer to her, according to the GoFundMe.
DailyMail.com has contacted the Lassen County Sheriff’s Department for comment.
