The family of an intellectually disabled man who went missing in Ridgewood Friday night received good news Monday when he was found safe.
“We are all so happy. We are all crying with happiness. We are thankful he was finally found,” Stephanie Almache, the cousin of the missing man, Geovanny Gonzalez, told The Courier as she was on her way to be reunited with him at New York Hospital Queens.
Gonzalez, 26, was last seen on the corner of Grove Street and Wycoff Avenue on the border of Ridgewood and Bushwick on October 3 at around 6 p.m.
Gonzalez, who is on vacation in America from Ecuador and only speaks Spanish, has the mental capacity of a 10-year-old and also suffers from epilepsy, which he has not had his medication for since he went missing.
“We are all really worried and want him back,” Almache said shortly before he was found. “He is a great guy and a really good friend. We are all just devastated.”
Family members said that Gonzalez was having dinner when he suddenly ran off. They chased him through the streets but eventually lost sight of him near the M train stop on Grove Street and Wycoff Avenue.
Because he was here for two months this year, prior to this vacation, he vaguely knows the cityscape and may have tried to make his way into Manhattan, which is where he came from earlier that day, Almache said.
According to police, Gonzalez was found in good condition. Almache and authorities did not immediately have more details on how he was located.
-With additional reporting by Cristabelle Tumola
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