Mystery mountain man identified

17th February 2012

Police have managed to name a mysterious man found freezing to death in the Tatra Mountains with no identification.

The man became the subject of a huge amount of media interest after forest rangers discovered him by chance in a hut high in the mountains. Suffering from frost bite and hypothermia he was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Zakopane, but refused to answer any questions or communicate with anybody other than to say “it hurts”. With no identification on him police were at a loss to put a name to the man.

But after a nationwide campaign with pictures of the emaciated and unshaven man carried across the media spectrum it turned out he was a former soldier from Wegorzewo called Wlodzimierz N. aged 36. The breakthrough came when his family recognised his picture on television.

“We have confirmation from three different sources, including the immediate family, of the man’s identity, so we don’t have any doubt about it,” said Kazimierz Pietruch, from the Zakopane police. “Officially, however, the procedure will only end when a family member comes in person and indentifies him.”

His family said that Wlodzimierz had told them he was going abroad for a number of years and so had not been worried by his absence.

Wlodzimierz served with the UN peace-keeping mission in Lebanon, and in the Iraq war before leaving the army in 2006 for health reasons.

“After receiving information that the man found in the mountains is a former professional soldier, Tomasz Siemoniak, the defence minister, has decided to grant any assistance requested by his family,” said Jacek Sonta, a defence ministry spokesman, adding that a military hospital was ready to treat him if requested.

Just how and why he was in the mountains without food and proper equipment remains a mystery, and looks set to remain that way until the old soldier can give a frank account of his behaviour.

But Bronislaw Stoch, a psychologist who saw Wlodzimierz, told the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza that the man is still failing to respond to questions and that “long-term therapy awaits him”. Mr Stoch added that the ex-soldier’s military experience may have contributed to his state.