Woman with amnesia discovers her identity

CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA: A woman who couldn’t recall her identity when she was found on a Southern California street earlier this year and turned to the internet in search of her family has now discovered who she is.

“I just feel like there’s this thick fog over my mind, my memory, over my brain that I can’t see through,’’ the woman who went by the name Sam told KNSD-TV in San Diego this week.

She has now been identified as Ashley Menatta, 53, from Pennsylvania, after her nephew saw a news story about the appeal and alerted his mother, who passed the information to the FBI. A reunion has been set up.

She remembered eating breakfast at a seaside organic restaurant near Perth and swimming in a saltwater pool. She also said she has recollections of living in Hawaii.

First responders found the woman in distress in February in the beach community of Carlsbad near San Diego and took her to the hospital where she said doctors diagnosed her with ovarian cancer and amnesia. Interpol posted the woman’s description online, and the FBI circulated her information to other law enforcement agencies in the hope of finding people who know her. Investigators interviewed her and took her fingerprints, said Darrell Foxworth, a special agent for the FBI in San Diego.

With the help of several nurses, the woman recently appealed for help on Facebook.

She said she was recently discharged from the hospital after undergoing surgery to remove the tumour.

“My prognosis is not good and I pray my family will be found soon,’’ she wrote.