The Strange Story of Michael Boatwright

July 16th, 2013

Via: My Desert:

The family of Michael Boatwright — who was found unconscious in a Palm Springs motel room four months ago and woke up speaking only Swedish — heard about his whereabouts for the first time Monday.

The Desert Sun located a sister of the 61-year-old who has spent more than 19 weeks at Desert Regional Medical Center insisting he is named Johan Ek and has no memory of his life as Boatwright. Despite the Florida identification found in his wallet, he has been speaking only in Swedish and says he does not understand English.

The U.S. Navy veteran — who was raised in Florida and often worked on the beaches near his parents’ Miami home — first visited Sweden in 1981, according to multiple friends.

Throughout the 1980s, Boatwright lived on a boat called “Honey Bea” off Rhode Island in 1984, according to the postmarks of letters he sent to Espling. He also spent time in Houston, Mexico and Newport, in addition to stints with his parents in Miami, she said.

Boatwright left Sweden for good around 2003, according to several reports.

“No one had heard from him in over 15 years,” Aftonbladet quotes friend Olle Sahlin as saying.

Boatwright was likely a 3D graphic designer and had taught English in both Japan for 10 years and China for four years, according to online profiles.

Then Boatwright flew to Palm Springs from Hong Kong on Feb. 24, the day his Chinese visa expired. He was found unconscious four days later.

One Response to “The Strange Story of Michael Boatwright”

  1. alvinroast says:

    Interesting story. Sounds like his memory got wiped. I remember a TV show from around 1980 with a secret agent/military type guy whose memory only lasted 24 hours. They would insert new memories with new skills and then he would have 24 hours to complete the mission before he forgot everything. The installed memories/skills were things like Chinese language and computer hacking. 🙂 I always wondered if the intelligence services had perfected a similar stunt.

    I suppose he could be faking it as well, but the timing is certainly interesting. As I understand it, if your Chinese visa is expiring you just take a day trip across a border so that’s no big deal. Why someone without ties to the area would fly to Palm Springs is the big question.

    I do wonder if he was named Boatwright before the story of him living on a boat…

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