Two Men Missing Since 9/11 Found Alive

Aug. 27 -- Two men feared dead and reported missing after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have been found alive in New York-area hospitals.

Hospital officials called the family of George V. Sims, 46, earlier this month and said they believed Sims was a patient there, but that they needed a photograph to confirm their suspicions, the family said.

"He's alive, but he's not in the best of health," his mother, Anna Sims, told the Newark Star-Ledger. "When I saw him, he did not know me. He did not know his daughter. He did not know his brother."

Sims was diagnosed with amnesia and schizophrenia. His mother did not disclose the hospital where he is recovering.

Another man, Albert Vaughan, 45, of Brooklyn, has also been removed from the list of missing and dead. Family members said Vaughan was homeless at the time of the attacks and was spending time in subway stations in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Relatives reportedly last saw Vaughan in the subway station below the World Trade Center about a month before Sept. 11.

However, after the attacks, family members did not see Vaughan. Shortly after the attacks, they reported him missing and did not know his whereabouts until about two months ago when officials at a New York hospital contacted them. Vaughan has since been transferred to the Rockland Psychiatric Center in Orangeburg, N.Y.

"Tell everyone I'm alive and in good health," said Vaughan, who told The Associated Press that he has no recollection of his whereabouts on Sept. 11 and did not realize his family feared he was dead.

It is unclear how Vaughan wound up in the hospital.

Ever Evolving 9/11 Missing List

New York city officials said there are several other cases like those of Vaughan and Sims. The current list of the overall missing and dead has 2,819 names, but authorities expect to release a revised list next week.

Sims had been listed as "reported missing" on an Associated Press list of 694 victims from New Jersey just last week becausethere was no verification other his family's missing persons report that Sims died at the World Trade Center.