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Forest boy mystery solved; he's 20 and Dutch

Friday - 6/15/2012, 10:58am  ET

Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) - The forest boy mystery is solved: It's not true.





"The young man known as `Ray' was confronted with the results of the investigation," police said in a statement. "He then confirmed his real personal details and admitted that the previous story _ that he had lived for years in the woods _ had been invented."

A Dutch website on missing relatives carried an entry on Robin van Helsum, saying he was born in 1992 and had been missing since Sept. 2, 2011 _ three days before he arrived in Berlin. Robin "left after leaving a farewell note. He was last seen traveling with a friend to Berlin. Since then every trace of him is gone," the entry on says.




The young man's father "was very sick and in fact has since died. He had reported him (Robin) missing," Westerhoff said in the Netherlands.

When German police broadcast his picture, friends of van Helsum contacted broadcaster NOS and it alerted Hengelo police.

"We checked with his stepmother, and we're definitely 100 percent sure it's him," Westerhoff said. "In addition to the picture, there is also a necklace that identifies him."

As for the forest boy story, "what his motive was is not something for us to investigate," she added.


Toby Sterling contributed to this report from Amsterdam
