A California man who was missing for 25 years and was identified after his sister saw his photo in a news article was convicted of two child sex offenses years before he disappeared, according to authorities and online records.
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In late November, the Lassen County Sheriff’s Office in California announced it had closed a cold case after a woman contacted a deputy upon seeing a USA Today article about a missing person she believed was her brother. The sheriff’s office announced that it had confirmed the man’s identity and said the siblings would soon be reunited, but did not name them, citing family privacy.
Sheriff John McGarva on Monday confirmed the man is Thomas Manizak, who went missing in 1999 from Doyle, California, six years after he had been convicted of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 and oral copulation with a child under 14. He was convicted in September 1993, when he was 22 years old, McGarva said.
Officials made Manizak’s name public after receiving permission from his sister Wednesday, McGarva told The Washington Post. (The disclosure was first reported by USA Today.)
Manizak’s identification by his sister drew widespread attention as a heartwarming end to a cold case disappearance. With that attention came an onslaught of questions about his identity and life before he went missing, McGarva said.
Manizak’s sister, Marcella Nasseri, did not immediately respond to interview requests from The Post.
She told officials she had last heard from her brother in 1999. After his 1993 convictions in Plumas County, Manizak spent time in prison before he was released on parole in 1995, McGarva said.
Under California law, convicted sex offenders must register themselves in the state’s public registry. Manizak’s last known registration was in 1998 in Lassen County, McGarva said.
After his disappearance in 1999, his family did not see or hear from him until his sister saw his photo in a USA Today story and contacted the sheriff’s office, McGarva said.
Manizak, now 53, was found in April in Los Angeles County. He was unable to communicate information about himself, and after weeks of trying to identify him, the hospital where he had been admitted issued a news release asking for the public’s help. The May 9 release included his photo and information about his appearance, which were published in the USA Today article.
On Nov. 22, Manizak’s sister contacted a Lassen County deputy about the article, telling them she thought the unidentified man might be her brother. By Nov. 25, officials had positively identified him and announced on Facebook that the siblings would be reunited soon.
But the sheriff’s office did not name him and gave no information on his whereabouts for the last 25 years. On Monday, McGarva told The Post that there was no new information available on Manizak’s life after he went missing.
A GoFundMe page made under Nasseri’s name said her brother had disappeared “with no trace.” On the fundraising page, she wrote that she hoped to raise enough funding to help transfer her brother, who she said is nonverbal, to a hospital in Lassen County.
McGarva added that when officials reached Manizak’s sister last week, she had not yet reconnected with her brother in person.
12-10-2024 05:15PM