Swede missing since August found at Naples airport with no memory of how he got there
25-year-old who calls himself Daniel lost money and papers in a Rome robbery and could not say where home was, parents found him through media reports while airport staff had fed him for weeks
Images
Der junge Mann nennt sich Daniel und lebte mehrere Wochen am Flughafen NeapelFoto: Meridianonews/ROPI
Foto: Meridianonews/ROPI
Mitarbeiter des Airports hatten ihn schon im Sommer gesehenFoto: ROPI
Foto: ROPI
A 25-year-old Swedish man spent weeks living in the arrivals hall of Naples airport, sleeping on the seats at night and eating what terminal staff gave him — without money, without papers and, as his family now believes, without his memory. His parents in Sweden had reported him missing in August; they learned where he was only after German media reported on the man who calls himself Daniel.
Airport workers first noticed him in October, though several say they had seen him at the terminal as early as the summer. His days passed inside the terminal; his nights he spent on the seats of the arrivals area, with food and clothing coming from people working there. At one point the staff wanted to take up a collection to pay for his journey home, but the plan foundered on a simple problem. “We wanted to make a collection to help him with his journey home, but the problem was that we didn't even understand where he wanted to return to,” one employee said.
Daniel has said little about his past. He describes a robbery in Rome in which his money and papers were taken, and cannot explain how he travelled on to Naples afterwards. The report his parents filed in August did not bring him home; a newspaper article did. After Bild wrote about the case, his parents got in touch, and a telephone call with his father followed. From the call they learned that their son is in Naples, how he is doing — and that he has presumably lost his memory.
Organizing the journey home now involves the city of Naples, Sweden's honorary consulate and the Swedish embassy in Rome. “We will continue to work together, also with the Swedish embassy in Rome, so that the young man can soon find peace again and be reunited with his relatives,” honorary consul Pierluigi Petrone said. Daniel himself wants to return to Sweden and to his family.
For weeks, the only people who fed and clothed him were airport workers who did not know who he was. The journey home they once considered funding by collection is now being organized by a city administration, a consulate and an embassy.