California man found 25 years after going missing discovered to be registered sex offender

A California man who was reported missing in 1999 was identified by his sister when his picture was printed in a USA Today article in April of this year, but the joyous discovery unveiled disturbing details. 

Tommy Manizak, the long-lost brother of Marcella (Marcie) Nasseri, is a registered sex offender who was convicted in 1993, according to the Lassen County Sheriff’s Department via USA Today.

Manizak served three years in county prison, Capt. Mike Carney said.

Details about the circumstances surrounding the case suggest that Manizak was reported as being fingerprinted, but Carney later learned it never actually happened, which kept police from being able to identify him, according to the reports.

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LCSO received a call from Nasseri, who told sheriff’s deputy Derek Kennemore she had been sent the article and believed the man in the article was her brother, who had not been heard from since his disappearance 25 years ago. 

Manizak had been admitted to a hospital in the Los Angeles area, according to the sheriff's office. Kennemore reached out and learned the man had been transferred to another hospital in July.

This triggered the police to run his fingerprints through the database, and he was found in the 1993 sex offender listing.

"I guess he wasn't cooperative when they tried to fingerprint him," Carney told USA Today. "We were told that he was unable to walk and was unable to talk, so I don't know what happened to him."

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Manizak registered as a sex offender in Lassen County but when he left town he never registered in his new location, Carney said.

"He went to Oregon and after that, according to his family, he was just kind of a free soul and he just floated around," Carney said.

While Nasseri is aware of the newly uncovered circumstances, describing what her brother did as "sickening and horrible," she told USA Today she is still overjoyed to reconnect with him.

"But at the end of the day, he's still my brother, and I'm not turning my back on my flesh and blood," Nasseri said. "I love him and I've been looking for 25 years – all the other stuff is outside noise, he's my brother and I love him."