Missing music producer found alive, naked, washing clothes in creek

[jobycom]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9073949/

LOS ANGELES - The nearly weeklong search for a Grammy-nominated producer ended Friday after a resident spotted the man sitting naked in a backyard creek, washing his jeans.

The Topanga Canyon resident found a distraught Christian Julian Irwin saying he feared he was being pursued by Nigerians who had contacted him in an Internet scam, sheriff’s Capt. Ray Peavy said.

Peavy said there was no evidence anyone was actually pursuing the 48-year-old producer, who has worked with Carly Simon and David Bowie, among others.

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Glad he's alive. Hope the mental damage is only temporary.

[Richard D]

1. yeah

Very strange story with likely more to be revealed. Glad he is OK too, and glad that the being pursued by Nigerian Scammers seems to be only in his mind.

[Maple]

2. 'This is your brain

on drugs'

[Richard D]

10. maybe

There was a really wild party near his house. A lot of cars coming and going most of the night. Possibility he went to the party and got a spiked drink. Lot of stuff to fill in here. Glad he is alive though.

[lvx35]

3. More than mental breakdown here....

According to the Times, Procopio "told him it was clearly a scam — don't be silly." But other friends and relatives told the newspaper that Irwin later received a mysterious $50,000 check and became increasingly concerned.

The real Nigerian scam doesn't actually give you $50,000 checks. Sounds like something more fucked up was occuring.

[jobycom]

4. Check may not have been real

Paranoid schizophrenia often leads to fantasies, and often about people chasing you. The delusions stretch out for months or years. Often the worst hit are the highly intelligent, and they are the hardest to spot, because their minds fill in the gaps in their stories, so everyone around them believes what they are saying. Watch "A Beautiful Mind," for instance. Rather good portrayal of what it looks like from the outside.

[WiseButAngrySara]

5. So glad he was found alive...I agree with what you say, except

paranoid schizophrenia as a diagnosis is unlikely for this gentleman because of his age.

[jobycom]

7. Probably

It can be diagnosed late in life, but it becomes more rare. I was really trying to give an example of how a person can become delusional and make people believe him. THere are other mental illnesses which can bring this on, and they can be caused even by diet or stress or other problems.

I'm not a doctor or anything, I just have a lot of Schizophrenia in my family, so I've seen it, though I couldn't get very technical on the subject (I'm adopted, so it's not my blood family).

[ultraist]

11. Drugs also can induce psychotic episodes

The person can present like a schizophrenic but once off the drugs, they don't show symptoms. He may be a paranoid schizophrenic, but I think drugs are more likely the cause.

[lvx35]

17. Also stress exaustion.

Got a lot of it in my family, and I've experienced some symptoms when sleep deprived.

[RagAss]

15. True

Harper's has an interesting blurb this month on internet based delusions. A recent phenomenon that illustrates how the illness integrates with whatever the current cultural trends are.

[lvx35]

6. I understand that.

I got really paranoid for a spell in 2001, and it seemed really real...but the thing was I could really prove anything to my friends...That's how this strikes me as wierd, his friends confirming the story about the check.
But we'll see, you're probably right.

[Tsiyu]

8. Actually one of my friens WAS sent a bogus check

in a Nigerian scam.

He was selling a car on the internet. He fell for the e-mails claiming the car would be sent to the buyer in the UK.

When the $5,000 check came, he was instructed to send a portion to a "shipper" in Canada. His bank accepted the check, cashed out the shipper's portion and made out a cashier's check in that amount which my friend sent to "the shipper." Days later the original check was discovered to be bogus. He had to repay the amount cashed out.

So, yes, these scams can fuck with people but sounds like maybe dude took some lame threats seriously or the scam combined with some mental illness to put him over the edge.

[lvx35]

16. Aha! That's really interesting.

I hadn't heard that. I always thought it was a "give us the power to make a small withdrawal from your account so we can put a million dollars in" thing.

[radwriter0555]

9. actually I GOT a check from my norwegian scammer drawn on a bank

in Ohio, and it was a fake check... so they DO send checks, they're just no good.

[lvx35]

18. hehe check it out:

just read this, thought of this thread:

August 21, 2005 -- Five Star Trust involvement with Bush and Cheney illegal money movements into the United States confirmed. French law enforcement authorities who are investigating a major international fraud scheme involving bribes paid to Nigerian officials by Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown and Root subsidiary (while Dick Cheney was President and CEO) and its TSKJ business partners in return for a Nigerian liquefied natural gas contract, have confirmed that Five Star Trust, an off-shore entity with a presence in the Bahamas and the Isle of Man, and which is linked to the Bush family, is the subject of a major international criminal investigation. The scandal, known as the Technip Affair in France, involves French, American, British, Italian, Japanese, and Portuguese criminal investigations, As reported by the editor after the 2004 election, Five Star Trust funds were moved illegally into the United States from Nigeria and other off-shore locations through the use of counterfeit "markers" used to secretly transfer large sums of money outside normal (and surveilled) banking networks like SWIFT. For the 2004 article on Five Star, click here. After the article appeared, there was a concerted effort by the Bush administration and its disinformation plants in the "blogosphere" to cast doubts on the authenticity of the revelations about Five Star Trust.

[mattclearing]

12. Isn't it possible that someone was after him for some reason though?

I hate for people to automatically jump to the conclusion that he was insane. I mean, a week is a long time to be on the run. Maybe someone really scared him.

[jobycom]

13. The authorities seemed convinced he was delusional.

[Catherine Vincent]

14. What a weird story.

I hope the guy seeks help.