(January 22, 2002

Vancouver:  Two mysteries may have been solved by a gay porn fan in a case that sounds more like fiction than fact, and perhaps is.

It began early on the morning of November 28, 1999 when a man staggered into Toronto Hospital, a block from the street where Toronto's hustlers ply their trade.

The man said he had been mugged and did not know who he was.

For two years he has had no identity but said he thought he might be Australian.  That was discounted when police could find no passport.  Then it was suspected he was British, but the man from Sheffield who fit the profile turned out to be dead.

The mystery man gave himself the name Philip Staufen after a Medieval German lord.  He has remained in Canada under a special permit from the government, lives on welfare,  and calls a broken down rooming house in Vancouver's East End home.  

His picture has periodically been published in European papers in the hope that someone will recognize him.

Now someone has.  A man from London contacted Vulcan magazine, a European gay porn magazine and said he believed the amnesia man was Georges Lechit, a 27-year-old model who had regularly appeared in the publication but had not been seen for the past two years.

The magazine agreed and called police.

Interpol brought in Richard Neave, one of Britain's leading forensic face construction experts who says there are striking similarities between the two men.  Neave said he is convinced the man calling himself Staufen is actually the missing porn star.

That might explain something the nurses at Toronto Hospital noticed when they examined him.  The man was heavily tanned, all over, and had perfectly manicured finger and toenails.

Last year, shortly after moving to Vancouver, he applied to legally use the name Philip Staufen.  His lawyer at the time, Manuel Azevedo, said he found the young man "filled with inconsistencies." 

Recalling his involvement with the man, Azevedo said he found it odd that he shunned media attention.  He rejected an invitation from an American crime show was willing to do a profile on him to see if anyone recognized him.

Azevedo said he thought the man would have jumped at the chance.

He has even rejected therapy to help him recover his memory.

A Toronto Police report filed the day he was mugged said there were few signs of any attack.  The report noted he claimed to have been mugged by a man asking for a cigarette.

Is Staufen really porn star Lechit?  The investigation into the man's past has been reopened.  Among the questions investigators want answered is, is the amnesia real is is a clever rouse to assume a new identity.  If so why?

Like any good mystery, we won't know until the final scene is played out.