Person Thought to Be Missing Peninsula Man Wasn't

By ALEXANDER NGUYEN (Patch Staff)

Updated 11:30 p.m. May 12, 2015

A missing Bay Area thought to be living in San Diego turned out to be a case of mistaken identity.

Mel Bittner, a homeless advocate, believed the homeless man who approached her last Wednesday was Michael Wallace, who disappeared from Menlo Park in 2003.

Bittner told a local news station the man went up to her, introduced himself as Michael and asked for her help going home.

She said something about the man made her take a picture and post it on a website that helps families search for their homeless loved ones. That was when Kim Wallace-Pehi’s friend saw the picture and tagged her on Facebook.

At first she said she couldn’t believe the person pictured was her brother.

“That can’t be him,” Wallace-Pehi said. “My brother was a beautiful man.”

The family has had reasons to be cautious. They’ve been through this before in the past 12 years, Wallace-Pehi said.

They had DNA tests done on deceased homeless men before.

After getting in touch with Wallace-Pehi, Bittner said she was convinced more than ever that the man in the picture was Wallace.

“After looking at his old photos, I’m convinced it’s him because of the smile,” Bittner told 10News in San Diego. ”I’ve gone out several more times, but haven’t been able to find him.”

After talking to Bittner, Wallace-Pehi was, too, 100 percent convinced it was her brother. It was the way he spoke to Bittner and the things he said that convinced her.

“He used the same line on her that he used on his wife,” Wallace-Pehi said. ”He said, ’Hi, I’m Michael.’” It’s a simple line, but it’s how he said it that made Wallace-Pehi believed.

Adding on top of that, she said 10 News’ forensic experts confirmed her brother’s identity with an 85 percent accuracy -- 90 percent is considered a perfect match.

But all that turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. Wallace-Pehi said Bittner found the man Tuesday and he had a different ID and no tattoos. Her brother has two tatoos.

When Wallace disappeared 12 years ago, he left behind all of his worldly possessions, including an Alfa-Romeo, Porsche and a sizable bank account.

Wallace-Pehi said she doesn’t know why her brother, a Harvard graduate, disappeared. He was clinically depressed, dealing with the sudden loss of his father, a separation from his wife and a being laid off from Sun Microsystems, but all that do not explain by he disappeared for 12 years.

“You can’t explain mental illness,” she said. “He thought he was a burden to us, which he wasn’t.”

Wallace was originally from Leominster, Mass. and moved to California to escape the winter’s blues. His family still all live in Massachusetts.

Wallace had mentioned walking away from it all and taking on a new identity and 12 years ago it seems, he possibly did just that. But his family has never given up looking for him, even setting up a Facebook page and a charity for mental illness in his honor, Michael’s Run.