Brett Kelman

TDS

Michael Thomas Boatwright, the mysterious amnesia patient who woke up in Palm Springs with no memory 14 months ago, was found dead in his home in Sweden on Tuesday. He was 62.

Boatwright's body was discovered in his apartment in Uddevalla, a city where he worked as a private tennis coach, by a friend. Inspector Peter Algersson, a spokesman for the Swedish police, said authorities believe the death was a suicide, and are not investigating it as a crime.

Boatwright's death adds a final chapter to a peculiar mystery that began in Palm Springs and spanned three continents.

On Feb. 24, 2013, Boatwright came to the Coachella Valley as a downtrodden, penniless traveler with longshot hopes of finding a job coaching tennis. Four days later, he was found unconscious in a Palm Springs motel room with obvious injuries. When he awoke at Desert Regional Medical Center, Boatwright insisted he could not remember who he was.

Although his belongings identified him as Michael Thomas Boatwright, a Vietnam War veteran from Florida, that name meant nothing to the patient at Desert Regional. He thought his name was Johan Ek. And, although he was American, he spoke only Swedish.

Desert Regional was unwilling to release a patient who was broke, homeless, alone and unable to speak English, so Boatwright lived at the hospital for the next five months. Social workers dove into his past, hoping to find a friend or family member who could help the amnesia patient, but found none.

After months without progress, some of the hospital staff began to question whether the patient was simply faking his amnesia. Staff tried to dupe Boatwright into speaking English, but found no success. Boatwright insisted his condition was a curse that no one would ever fabricate.

"Walk in my shoes for one day," Boatwright told The Desert Sun in July, speaking through a translator. "You'll experience the nightmare of a lifetime."

Desert Regional reached out to the newspaper in July, hoping that mass media could reveal more about the man locked in limbo at the hospital. The newspaper soon located Boatwright's sister, Michelle Brewer, in Louisiana, and a longtime friend, Gifford Searls, in China.

Searls explained that Boatwright had come to the desert from Zhuhai, a Chinese city on the border with Macau, where he taught English professionally and played tennis frequently. Searls said Boatwright appeared to be living a happy life in China until January, when he had attempted to kill himself with a mix of vodka and animal tranquilizers.

Only then did Searls discover that Boatwright had fallen on hard times — his ex-wife had remarried, and his work visa had expired. At a loss for other ideas, Searls bought his friend a ticket back to the United States, believing Boatwright could find a fresh start in the desert.

Searls directed Boatwright to an old friend at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa in Palm Desert, hoping the hotel needed a tennis instructor. But the job fell through, leaving Boatwright in the desert with no contacts, no money and dwindling prospects. Boatwright was found unconscious two days after the hotel turned him down.

After The Desert Sun broke the story of Boatwright's amnesia, the peculiar tale gained worldwide attention. The story was republished by USA Today, then covered by CNN, the Los Angeles Times, the Huffington Post, NPR and numerous other news organizations, including several in Sweden. The story also drew the attention of Swedish filmmakers who hoped to make a documentary about Boatwright rediscovering his forgotten past. In December, The Desert Sun named Boatwright's strange tale one of the top stories of 2013.

Boatwright spent five months at the hospital before he was transferred to Roy's Desert Resource Center, a homeless shelter just outside Palm Springs. After two weeks at the shelter, the Riverside County Department of Mental Health bought Boatwright a ticket to Sweden, believing he would have a better chance of recovery in a place where he spoke the language.

Boatwright arrived in Sweden on Aug. 20, then vanished from the media spotlight. He moved to Uddevalla, a port city on the southwest coast of Sweden, and began working as a tennis coach. Although his ability to speak English never returned, he was surrounded by Swedish- speakers.

In March — about a year after his amnesia surfaced — Boatwright granted an interview to Bohusläningen, the Uddevalla city newspaper. Boatwright said he had found happiness in his new life, no longer a stranger in his own country.

"I feel like I've been born again," Boatwright said to Bohusläningen, speaking in Swedish. "I'm so lucky."