German Police Release Photo of Mystery ‘Forest Boy’
Berlin police have released a photograph of a mystery boy who claims to have spent five years living in a German forest, in the hope of establishing his identity.
The teenager, who has been nicknamed the “forest boy”, was discovered nine months ago when he turned up at Berlin’s town hall carrying a rucksack and tent and saying he had walked for five days to get to Berlin. Calling himself Ray, he said both his parents were dead. The youth said his mother, Doreen, had been killed in a car accident, and that he had lived wild with his father, Ryan, in a German forest until his death last August.
Speaking English, Ray, who is believed to be 17, told authorities that he had buried his father before following his instructions to “walk north until you reach civilisation and then ask for help”. He does not know where his father died. He says he was born on 20 June 1994, but otherwise knows nothing about his identity. He wears an amulet bearing the initials D and R - believed to be those of his parents - around his neck. While he speaks English, experts who have heard his voice do not think it is his mother tongue.