Disappeared Vargas teenager returns to the coast to recover memory

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, April 04, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Leonardo Jose Leal (15) Ballesteros, who disappeared during the 1999 Vargas State natural disaster,  has been found in Charallave (Miranda) where a family had given him lodging. The teenager still has mental lapses and is being treated by a psychiatrist to help him recover his memory. 

Leal Ballesteros lived with his parents and three brothers in Playa Verde Catia La Mar before a mudslide buried the house ... it is presumed that they died in the disaster.  He says he does not remember how he got to Charallave (Miranda)  except that a family took him in and he has been with them ever since.

Neighbor Ricardo Alfonso Barreto has been helping Leonardo Jose piece together parts of his life and took him to Vargas State last week to see if it would help. They have been able to get Leonardo Jose's identity ratified at the Passport & Identification Office (Oni-Dex). Vargas Prefect Glady Pacheco has sent photographs to local schools to see if anyone can remember the young man or his family.