​The Jim McDonnell amnesia story is a remarkable real-life case of disappearance and rediscovery. In 1971, Jim McDonnell, a 50-year-old mail carrier from Larchmont, New York, vanished after a series of accidents that resulted in head injuries. He was declared legally dead in 1976. Fifteen years later, on Christmas Day 1985, McDonnell unexpectedly returned home, claiming that a recent head injury had restored his memory.