Grandad who escaped care home found alive decade after he was 'cremated'

28 February 2023 , 05:54

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Zhuo Kangluo has been reunited with his family a decade after he was thought to have been cremated

A grandad who was thought to have been cremated almost a decade ago has been discovered alive and well.

Zhuo Kangluo was identified by authorities last week after his grandson recognised him on a missing persons poster.

The elderly gentleman had refused to answer any questions from investigators before a DNA test showed a clear match with his brother - confounding a family who had spent years believing he was dead.

Mr Kangluo's remarkable tale began when he fled a care home back in 2014, with relatives and villagers reportedly mistakenly identifying him with a body found by a roadside in the area shortly afterwards.

The grandad was identified by a DNA test after authorities filed a missing persons report

The body of the person now known not to be Zhuo was cremated shortly afterwards, as his nephew said he did not want an autopsy to be taken.

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He was then assumed dead until he resurfaced this year after authorities in the Chinese province of Chonqing followed up reports of a man acting strangely by filing a missing person's report.

An emotional family reunion following the DNA test results saw Mr Kangluo reportedly brought to tears, and he was shown to be able to spell his relatives' names correctly when asked.

Authorities are now looking to establish the identity of the cremated person, according to China News Network.

Back in 2021, a man thought to have died in a plane crash 45 years earlier left relatives stunned when he made a similar 'return from the dead'.

The 70-year-old left his hometown of Shasthamkotta in India in October 1976 to support his family by working in the Persian Gulf.

But disaster struck when one of the engines on his Indian Airlines flight from Bombay to Madras caught fire, killing 95 people on board.

Sajid’s parents, four sisters and three brothers believed he was among the dead but in reality, he travelled to Abu Dhabi where he got a job promoting Indian culture overseas and organising screenings of Malayalam movies.

Benedict Tetzlaff-Deas