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Memory lost, he just wandered

DALLAS - Joe Bieger walked out his front door with his two dogs one morning last fall a beloved husband, father, grandfather and assistant high school athletic director. Minutes later, all of that - indeed, his very identity - would seemingly be wiped from his brain's hard drive.

For 25 days, he wandered the streets of Dallas and its environs a lost soul, unable to remember his name, what he did for a living, or where he lived, until, finally, a contractor who was building a new house for Bieger and his wife happened to recognize him.

By that point, Bieger had somehow made his way to a suburb about 20 miles from his Dallas home. He had lost 25 pounds, and a full white beard covered the normally clean-shaven educator's face.

Bieger, 59, said he was diagnosed afterward as suffering from psychogenic fugue, a rare form of amnesia.

He said he has regained all his memories up to the point he wandered away, and is amazed at the outpouring of support he received from friends, co-workers and the hundreds of volunteers who helped search for him.

"Everyone believes that God brought me back for a reason, otherwise this might have ended differently," he said.

Bieger is under the care of a doctor who specializes in such cases. And his cell phone now includes a GPS tracking device.

But more than three months after the episode, he said he has only vague memories of those days on the streets of Dallas, one of America's most crime-ridden cities.

He said he cannot recall what he ate to survive. When he was found, he had jelly packets from a fast-food restaurant in his pockets and half a stale bagel.

Bieger's ordeal finally drew to a close on Oct. 30, in the suburb of Carrollton.

Mike Phillips, a construction foreman, saw a man wandering close to the site where Bieger was having a new home built. Phillips thought the man might be Bieger.

As the two spoke, memories slowly came back, Bieger said. It took about two hours to come out of the fog, he said.

No one seems to know exactly how many others are afflicted with psychogenic fugues, or what the precise underlying causes are. Victims may lose all memory of themselves, family or friends, but otherwise seem to function normally. Most victims eventually regain their memories, though it can take days and sometimes years.

[Last modified January 27, 2007, 00:36:12]