Police hope selfies can ID mystery paddle boarder

Michael Harthorne

Newser

Police are trying to find the man in the foreground, who went missing Aug. 12 in Lake Tahoe.

(NEWSER) – Police in California are hunting for a mystery man who disappeared while paddle-boarding on Lake Tahoe, with the missing man's selfies as their major clue. News 10 reports a boater found an abandoned paddle board, camera, lifejacket and selfie stick floating in the lake on Wednesday.

The paddle board had been rented from a local company by a man with a thick accent who didn't speak English very well and identified himself as "Morym." News 10 reports the man paid cash for the paddle board, which was found about an hour after it was rented, and didn't leave a phone number or any other identifying information.

Now, police are treating the man's disappearance as a missing-persons case and trying to find him using photos on the camera he left behind. According to a press release from the South Lake Tahoe Police Department, selfies on the camera show the man at various locations around the area.

But they also show him in Italy, Dubai, and the United Arab Emirates over the past six or so months. A few of the photos from the Tahoe area contain a second man, and police are trying to identify him as well. (Elsewhere in California, a woman who couldn't remember her own identity was recognized by relatives.)