Man Declared Dead Very Much Alive -- And Claims He Has Amnesia; Wife Takes Him To Court

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- When Leslie Bright's husband, Winston, vanished in October 1990, she was overcome with grief.

"All I did was just prayed and cried," she said.

She desperately passed out a flier, part of an NYPD missing persons case.

A decade passed and hope ran out. She declared him legally dead in 2000, collecting his pension from Verizon to care for their three young children.

"I honestly thought something happened to him," she said.

Then, four years ago -- 20 years after he disappeared -- he came home. Bright said it wasn't for a reunion.

"All he talked about was money," she said.

Court documents show her husband filed a petition to prove he's Winston Bright and to win back his pension, CBS 2's Weijia Jiang reported.

He was not only alive but well, and teaching in San Diego with a new identity -- "Kwame Seku."

In his court filing, the "missing" man said, "I was never returned home but rather found myself in California with no recollection of how I got there or who I was."

Seku said he suffered from amnesia, but his son A.J. said he isn't buying it.

"You don't just walk down the black and catch amnesia," he said.

Leslie said if Seku proves he is her husband, she's taking him to divorce court. She said they're still legally married and he owes her a lot -- money to cover years of child support, for starters.

"He wants to come back as Winston Bright? That might be the sorriest thing he ever does, including walking away from us, because I am going to sue for everything," she said.

The family members said the only thing he forgot about was them.

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