The heartwarming story of a California sister who found her missing brother 25 years after he disappeared without a trace has taken a dark turn.
Thomas Manizak, now 53, was traveling to Newport, Oregon, when he was last heard from on July 30, 1999, at the age of 28.
But earlier this year, his sister Marcella Nasseri came across a photo published by USA Today showing him lying in a hospital bed in California.
Manizak, who is now nonverbal, spent weeks at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood after he was found on a curb in South Los Angeles and hospital staff were eager to connect him with a loved one.
“All this time I was looking for unidentified remains,” his sister, who lives 600 miles away in Lassen County, wrote on one GoFundMe. ‘I was very happy to find him alive!’
However, it has since emerged that Manizak is a convicted sex offender who was charged in 1993 with lewd and lascivious acts and oral copulation with a child under 14. USA today reported.
He served three years in prison and was ordered to add his name to the Lassen County sex offender registry upon his release.
The family said what Manizak did was “sickening and horrible” and caused them “great sadness.” 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 came across a photo (photo) published by USA Today
Manizak, 53, who was nonverbal, had been at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood for weeks and hospital staff wanted to connect him with a loved one in May (Photo: Nasseri and a seven-year-old Thomas)
“I will not turn my back on my flesh and blood,” she told USA Today. ‘I love him and I have been looking for 25 years – everything else is outside noise, he is my brother and I love him.’
Manizak left town a few years after being released from prison 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 just floating around,” said Mike Carney, captain of the Lassen County Sheriff’s Department.
Manizak, who was an avid camper, had last contacted his family in August 1999 after calling his mother from a truck stop in Twin Falls, Idaho. He normally called his mother twice a week and said he was headed to Newport, Oregon.
He was last seen in July when he was 28 years old.
Manizak was on disability due to a diabetes diagnosis and required two insulin injections a day. But during his 25-year disappearance, he did not use his medical card to obtain his insulin prescription or collect his disability checks, according to USA Today.
Manizak was only identified after his sister saw his photo online and called police to warn them he was her relative. They later learned of his crimes when they ran his name through the system.
Police originally intended to fingerprint Manizak, but that was not possible because he was “uncooperative,” Carney said.
Manizak, who was an avid camper, had last contacted his family in August 1999 after calling his mother from a truck stop in Twin Falls, Idaho.
Manizak left town a few years after being released from prison and failed to re-register as a sex offender in his new city, which is illegal under California law
Nasseri plans to fly to her brother soon and is trying to get him to another hospital closer to her.
“We were told he couldn’t walk and he couldn’t talk, so I don’t know what happened to him,” he told the outlet.
After learning her brother was alive, she sent him clothes, drawing pencils and a sketchpad “because he loved drawing.”
Nasseri plans to fly to her brother soon and is working to get him to another hospital closer to her, according to GoFundMe.
DailyMail.com has contacted the Lassen County Sheriff’s Department for comment.