A British man saw his father on a television show — five years after he thought he had been cremated, police said.
John Renehan's father John Delaney went missing in 2000, and when the decomposing body of a man with similar clothes and distinguishing wounds was found in January 2003, the man was duly identified and cremated.
But the real Delaney, 71, was in a nearby care home, having been found in 2000 wandering the streets suffering from amnesia following a brain injury and unable to recall his identity.
Given a new name, "David Harrison" appeared on a missing persons television appeal, seen by a stunned Renehan, 42, who called in.
DNA tests confirmed they were indeed father and son. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) in northwest England have now launched an inquiry to discover the identity of the man cremated in 2003.
The force said they accepted that the man admitted to the care home "should have been identified as Mr John Delaney and that the inquiries made at the time to establish the unknown man's identity were not sufficient."
GMP now "has advanced systems in place to ensure that mistakes of this nature are not made and robust checks are made to establish the identity of people who cannot immediately confirm who they are.
"Greater Manchester Police accepts that mistakes were made and that Mr Delaney's family has been through a traumatic ordeal."
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