The Berlin Forest Boy 'Ray' (Speculative Thread!)

[Loopdaloop]

Hi,
I haven't seen a thread for this so if there is one I'm sorry and please merge/delete.

I'm not sure how many of you have seen the story of the Boy that lived in the forest with his father and when he died he left the forest and walked to Berlin. He had apparently been living in the forest since he was 12 however can't remember anything from before there, like where in England he was from. A bit of a mystery.... However I keep reading speculation that he could be Ben Needham (!?)

I was wondering what the forum thought about this intriguing story!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2038895/German-forest-boy-telling-truth-say-police-fathers-shallow-grave.html?ITO=1490
Police say they believe 'forest boy' as they retrace his steps to find father's shallow grave
Ray could have criss-crossed Europe with father
Baffled detectives carrying out further DNA tests
They have found nothing to disprove claims
Linguistic experts have been assigned to case
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 10:08 PM on 19th September 2011

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Mystery: The boy, known only as Ray, arrived in Berlin earlier this month carrying a rucksack
German police are trying to retrace the steps of the English speaking ‘forest boy’ in an attempt to find his father’s body.
They are also investigating reports that the teenager may have criss-crossed Europe during the five years he says he spent living rough in forests with his father.
The boy, who is estimated to be 17, says his name is Ray but has little other idea who he is. He arrived in Berlin on September 5, carrying only a rucksack, tent and sleeping bag.
He claimed his father Ryan had taken him into the woods south of the German capital five years ago after his mother Doreen died in a car crash, and they had lived there ever since.
The boy said his father had died after a fall and he had buried him in a shallow grave before heading north to Berlin, as his father had instructed him to do in the case of an emergency.

More...
Is the boy who lived in German woods for five years British? Interpol called in to investigate identity of Ray
Police are baffled by the case. Although officers have been unable to locate the grave or establish how the father died, they say the boy’s story so far checks out. A German police spokesman said: ‘What we can say for sure is that we have found nothing at all to disprove the story almost two weeks on.
‘As well as alerting Interpol we have contacted Czech police to see if there is any indication the woodland south of the city that he refers to could have been in Czech territory.
‘It would have been no problem crossing the border and although he says he had been walking north for two weeks, we believe that was a generalisation.

Living rough: The boy says he has spent the last five years living in German forests with his father
‘It could have been shorter, which would have put him in the area of the Erzgebirge Naturpark, or if it was longer it could be the Bavarian National Park, which extends into the Czech Republic.’
German police are believed to have contacted Czech and Austrian officials to find out whether the boy or his father had been arrested for vagrancy or similar offences after suggestions that the pair might have criss-crossed Europe over the years.
They have also requested information about any unidentified bodies found buried in woodland over the past year.
Police have been working with the boy to try to recreate his route in the two weeks that he was without his father.
They have not ruled out that he may have been through some kind of mental trauma, and are giving him psychiatric tests, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The boy, who is 5ft 11in, with blond hair and blue eyes, is also being checked against missing child lists.
Officials believe the teenager could be British because he speaks English but only basic German. The British Consul is working with police to try to solve the mystery.
Linguistic experts are working with him to analyse his accent and determine where he came from.
Police said the boy had told them that he and his father had lived in a tent and then later in burrows that they dug themselves. Officials confirmed that the boy was in good physical shape and had no signs of abuse apart from a small scar that was at least three years old.
Police have issued DNA and fingerprint evidence as well as a photograph of the blue-eyed and athletic-looking boy to Interpol. Social workers have applied for child protection status for him.
The boy is unable to tell them exactly where he buried his father, but claimed he 'followed his compass northwards'.
Police believe he could have been living in Bayerischer national park, parts of which cross the border into the Czech Republic, or the Erzgebirge region.

and from the telegraph...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/8774964/German-forest-boys-first-words-Im-all-alone-in-the-world-please-help-me.html
German forest boy's first words: 'I'm all alone in the world, please help me'
An english-speaking boy who claims he lived rough for five years in a German forest walked in off the street and told staff at Berlin's City Hall: "I'm all alone in the world, I don't know who I am. Please help me."

Berlin 'Forest Boy' Ray
By Fiona Govan, Berlin9:00PM BST 19 Sep 2011
Two weeks after his arrival in capital, German police are still baffled as to the true identity of the teenager, who is now being cared for by social services, and are preparing to launch a public appeal.
But it emerged Monday that after telling his incredible story to City Hall staff he was shown the door and instructed how to reach a youth support centre using public transport.
A civil servant who was the first to speak at length with the boy on his arrival at the administrative centre has told the Daily Telegraph that he was a "normal looking teenager" but said it quickly emerged that he had an extraordinary story to tell.
"He didn't look like at all like a vagrant – he didn't smell, he was clean, his clothes were clean but he simply didn't know anything about who he was," said the female office worker who was called to front desk at the Rathaus by security guards because she speaks English.
Carrying a rucksack and sleeping bag, the teenager called Ray walked through the doors at the impressive red brick building near Alexanderplatz in the centre of Berlin around 4pm on Monday 5 September.
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"He said he needed help, that he didn't know where to go and had no one in the world to look after him. I tried as much as I could to find out details about where he was from but he just didn't know."
The teenager, who is described as blond and blue eyed and around 5'11", said he only knew that his first name was Ray and that he was 17 years old.
"He had only a few words of German but was completely fluent in English, and said that his father had told him it was an important language," said the civil servant who asked not to be named. "Although he seemed to be a native English speaker, I detected some sort of accent."
The boy told the civil servant that he had been travelling around with his father, who it is thought was named Ryan, for "as long as he could remember" but his father had died and so he had followed his compass north.
"He seemed calm, not scared at all, but quiet. He said he had been told to go to Berlin if he ever needed help and had taken several weeks to walk here," she said.
Police said he later described how he had been living in a forest for "at least five years" following the death of his mother in a car crash but that his father had recently died in a fall so he buried him in a shallow grave before walking to Berlin.
"He mentioned that his mother had died in a car crash when he was a child and I got the impression he had been in the car too because he then said he had been left with scars on his legs but he didn't show them to me," the civil servant said.
The Civil servant described how she attempted to find out where he might be from and had to explain to him the concept of a passport.
"He looked completely puzzled when I asked him if he had a passport or identity card and I had to describe what they were. But he said he could read because his father had taught him," she said.
The civil servant contacted child welfare services and was told to direct him to a crisis centre in another part of the city.
"I printed off a map for him, wrote some instructions and told him how to buy a ticket for the U-bahn (the metro). He pulled some coins from his pocket and asked if it was enough and then I sent him on his way."
"He said he was looking forward to sleeping in a bed after all that time in a tent and off he went," she said. "It was the strangest encounter I've ever had and I do hope they can find out more about him."
At the Jugendnotdienst youth shelter – in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin where the teenager was sent, staff said they were unable to comment on the case. But one German teenager residing there remembered his stay.
"He was here for a few days, possibly a week before being transferred elsewhere last week," said the youth. "He only spoke a few words of German so we couldn't really communicate but we watched television together and shared some cigarettes."
Berlin police have made an appeal to Interpol to widen the search for his identity to forces across the world but said on Monday that they had yet to get any response.
Authorities would assign a legal guardian to the boy, a police spokesman said, before the next step in the investigation could proceed.

Needless to say I guess the Mccanns are waiting, prepared to pounce on this case as we speak and twist it to gratuitously to fit their purposes.

[wjk]

this is a really weird story. I wonder why he doesn't remember anything from his earlier life? He was 12 when his mum died but doesn;t remember life before that, its so strange

[Loopdaloop]

this is a really weird story. I wonder why he doesn't remember anything from his earlier life? He was 12 when his mum died but doesn;t remember life before that, its so strange

I'm curious as to why they have only released a photofit picture as well!

[Angelique]

I think it is odd - how did he wash his clothes? The report says "he didn't look like a vagrant - he did'nt smell - he was clean, his clothes were clean but he simply didn't know anything about who he was".

[margaret]

I would have thought the last language Ben Needhams kidnappers would have taught him would be English but you never know, he does resemble Ben in that photofit. l read at the weekend that they cannot release a photo to protect his identity but a likeness is okay.

[Fern]

Where exactly is this young lad now ?

I'm rather suprised that after spending 5 years or so in the woods he was sent across town on his own ?

How did he know it was 5 years he was in the woods for, did he have a calendar/watch/access to newspapers/TV ?

Poor lad and what strange case.

[beausnanna]

Isn't Ben Needham 21 now?

[chrissie]

A very strange story:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3843824/Has-Forest-Boy-been-lying-all-along.html

Has Forest Boy been lying all along?

Forest Boy stuns German police

AFTER 5yrs in forests with dad, teen appears with only tent, sleeping bag and rucksack

Published: Today
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AN English-speaking teen who mysteriously turned up in Berlin claiming to have lived in a forest for five years may have been lying all along, cops say.

Police officials in the German capital say the 17-year-old, who claims not to know who he is, has refused to help in their investigation to discover his identity.

They also say the account he has given them, since appearing in the city on September 5, is riddled with inconsistencies.

The teen claimed he could only remember that his name was Ray and could tell officials nothing about his past.

Despite this, he told his appointed legal guardian he did not want to make a public appeal because he did not care about finding out his true identity, telling her: "I just want to get on with my life."

He insisted he had been living with his dad, Ryan, in the forest ever since his mum Doreen died in a car accident and told officials he had walked for two weeks to reach the city when his father also died suddenly following a fall.

Berlin police spokesman Thomas Neuendorf said: "How can it be that someone who doesn't know who he is or how he has spent the last months or years isn't interested in finding out?

"He just doesn't look like a boy who lived in the forest for any amount of time.

"Maybe he is telling us a story that isn't true and that is why he doesn't want to go public."

Speculation was rife after Berlin cops started trying to identify the youth that he could be British. He spoke perfect English and only a few words of German.

But after initial confidence in his story, cops took a closer look at what he was carrying and started to doubt he had been telling the truth.

Mr Neuendorf added: "The tent he had with him was used, yes, but not so well used as you'd expect for such a long time in the forest.

"And he was clean and wearing clean clothes. His fingernails were well kept and his hands soft. Such things raise questions.
Quantcast

"He said he walked for two weeks but can't tell us anything about the journey or why he chose to go the City Hall."

His father's body has not been found despite a search. Cops in neighbouring Czech Republic and Austria — alert to the fact he could have travelled long distances — have also turned up nothing.

Mr Neuendorf said: "He hasn't expanded on his original story and can't tell us any facts or anything that we can usefully check.

"He can't name or describe a single landmark, town or place that may lead us to retrace his steps but just keeps repeating the same vague story."
====================================

You just have to wonder why. I also wonder why he hasn't been reported as a missing person. All very strange.

[margaret]

Maybe he is an orphan? But l don't believe his story at all, wonder what is behind it all?

[AnnaEsse]

Maybe he is an orphan? But l don't believe his story at all, wonder what is behind it all?

I don't believe it either. He doesn't sound like he's been wandering in the forest, living off berries. Too neat and clean!

[kitti]

Perhaps he's a fantasist

[comperedna]

Perhaps he has had some recent serious psychological shock, and has not been able to deal with it, and has run away, and has genuinely forgotten who he is and where he comes from... I remember it happened to Agatha Christie once... or so it was said, when she turned up incognito and confused as to her identity in some hotel somewhere... Rare, but it happens...

[comperedna]

What Are the Symptoms of Dissociative Fugue?

A fugue in progress often is difficult for others to recognize because the person's outward behavior appears normal. Symptoms of dissociative fugue might include the following:

* Sudden and unplanned travel away from home
* Inability to recall past events or important information from the person's life
* Confusion or loss of memory about his or her identity, possibly assuming a new identity to make up for the loss
* Extreme distress and problems with daily functioning (due to the fugue episodes)


Point 4 isn't really that true of the boy, however. He seems to be coping OK.

[chrissie]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2046353/Forest-boy-Rays-grandson-Swiss-couple-come-forward-claim-mystery-man.html#ixzz1a5YlVMoH

Forest boy' Ray is our grandson: Swiss couple come forward to claim teenager who said he'd lived in woods for five years

By Allan Hall

Last updated at 11:28 AM on 7th October 2011

A Swiss couple have come forward to claim that the mysterious 'Forest Boy' is their grandson.

The pair are due to give a DNA sample which will be tested against that of the boy, Ray, who appeared in Berlin last month claiming to have been living in the forest for five years.

Berlin's B.Z. newspaper today reported that Ray's photo was seen by the couple in Switzerland and they then contacted police.
Ray's past: Experts are struggling to work out who the boy really is and what has happened to him

Ray's past: Experts are struggling to work out who the boy really is and what has happened to him

There was no official comment from authorities in Berlin and no further detail in the newspaper report.

Police and social workers began suspecting two weeks ago that Ray's story was bogus and that his motives were suspect.

He is only 17 and now in the care of social workers after a legal guardian was appointed to represent his interests.

If it is found that he comes from Switzerland he will be deported back there.

The blonde, blue-eyed boy claimed to remember few details about his life when he turned up on the steps of a town hall in the east of Berlin on September 5.

He told a tale - in accented English - that gripped the imagination of the world. He said he had been living in a tent in a forest for five years with his father, called Ryan, and that his mother Doreen had died in a car crash five years previously.

He said that his father died suddenly in the woods and he began walking towards Berlin. He said he had buried his father among the trees.

'I'm all alone, please help me,' he said.

He was taken into care at a cost to the German taxpayer of around £2,500 per month.

Wilderness: The teenager's history is shrouded in darkness - but this new claim could shed new light on his history

Wilderness: The teenager's history is shrouded in darkness - but this new claim could shed new light on his history

But his tall tale soon began to develop more holes than a Swiss cheese.

A check of police computers in all 16 states of Germany found that no one by the name of Doreen had died in a car crash in the past decade.

No sign of a grave has been found in cursory searches of forests in the Harz Mountains, along the Bavarian-Czech border or in Thuringia.

Ray is unable to pinpoint the forest where he said he lived, he is also unable to say what nationality he is. Officials originally thought he could be British because he speaks English but only basic German, although they now doubt this.

The tent he carried did not look as if it had sustained five years of treatment in a German forest and Ray was well dressed and clean.

As Interpol was alerted to check with police forces for missing people in other European countries, Ray triggered more suspicion when he said he did not want to pose for photographs or make an appeal to try to find any of his family.

'They're all dead,' he said. 'I just want to get on and make a new life for myself.'

A police spokesman said: 'Unfortunately it seems that the boy told his guardian that he wasn't interested in discovering who he was.'

But now the Swiss link is the most promising development so far.

If true, Germany would be in a position to make a claim from Switzerland for money towards Ray's upkeep so far.

[comperedna]

Hoax or fugue... What a poser the kid is, eh?

[Angelique]

Who knows- it's still a mystery even if this Swiss connection is real.

Why would he make up such an extraordinary tale - must be some sort of memory loss.

[Sunflower27]

I don't believe any of it.

he has got media attention now and will no doubt be given a roof over his head and some financial assistance, which is a lot more than some homeless people have.

How can he remember how long he was there for and the name of his mother and nothing else. It's all BS.

[Guest]

Wasn't there a similar story a few years ago, of a man found wandering, who couldn't give his name or any details about himself but was a concert-grade pianist.

[Claudia79]

Wasn't there a similar story a few years ago, of a man found wandering, who couldn't give his name or any details about himself but was a concert-grade pianist.

Yep. He was a fraud. :-(

[Guest]

It sounds like the story of Kaspar Hauser to me.

[Claudia79]

It sounds like the story of Kaspar Hauser to me.

Probably so.

[Guest]

And the FSS mucked up HIS DNA as well!

[Loopdaloop]

It sounds like the story of Kaspar Hauser to me.

wow! I just googled that! uncanny!

[Claudia79]

And the FSS mucked up HIS DNA as well!

Oh boy!

[Fern]

This certainly seem an unusal story for many reasons.

Has this young lad suffered some sort of trauma that he wishes to escape from hence his story ?

Why hasn't any of his friends come forward ?

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