I'm dead....oh never mind, I'm just gay

[FamousAJ]

I would guess some major legal problems need to be addressed, like the life insurance for one.

A deeply religious father of five, who struggled with his sexuality, was pronounced dead after disappearing on a business trip 22 years ago. He just turned up one day at his family's doorstep with a male lover.

"I cannot say anything to deny that it is the most selfish thing in the world," Eric Myers, 56, said of abandoning his wife and kids back in 1991, when he was 34.

They searched, mourned and moved on.

Myer's youngest daughter Kirsten Myers Ruggiano, 30, has not spoken to him since his return in 2007. She thinks he is incapable of love.

"I know how much I love my children," Ruggiano, who was 8 when Myers vanished, told ABC News. "And if he loved me even half as much as I loved them, there would be no situation where he would ever think that it was okay to leave me."

The life Myers left behind seemed perfect to outsiders, just not to him.

The high school class president had grown up to become a property manager for his father's flourishing real estate business. His storybook life included a beautiful wife and children in a ritzy Phoenix suburb with luxury golf courses and influential neighbors — but he told ABC News he wanted none of it.

"At 6 years old, I knew I was attracted, drawn very heavily toward other people my same sex," he said.

He says he longed for men the whole time he crafted his heterosexual persona. He thought a girlfriend or Christianity would turn him straight but both failed to do so.

On June 25, 1991, Myers could not carry on with the charade. He left for a work seminar in San Diego and never returned.

"To live in a disguise is a horrible prison," said Myers.

No one knew what happened to him for nearly two decades. Police investigations ran cold. His youngest daughter turned to alcohol at 11 to sooth the pain.

"I think probably because of my age — and because I was the youngest — I think it's safe to say I took it the hardest," said Ruggiano.

While his daughter dealt teenage alcoholism, Myers escaped to the sandy beaches of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

"I'm sitting there, saying, 'You can do this and still go back. You can still do this and still be OK. Maybe a week. Maybe two weeks,'" he said.

After four months, he moved to Palm Springs, Calif., where he met Sean Lung, a Canadian tourist, according to ABC News.

They fell in love, moved in together, adopted different identities and worked odd jobs that did not require paperwork.

When Myers was legally declared dead in 1996, his family received $800,000 thanks to his life policy with Liberty Life Insurance. The money was placed in trust funds for the couple's two daughters.

But when Myers reappeared, the insurance company sued the Myers family for $800,000 plus interest — adding to the family's frustration.

"I know a lot of people who would never do this," Ruggiano said, "absolutely never blame it on their homosexuality."

SOURCE & VIDEO

 

[Sanford]

I don't see the gayness has anything to do with the problem, which is what happens when a missing person is declared dead, and then shows back up some years later.

Personal opinion? Unless they can prove intent to defraud the insurance company needs to suck it up and deal with it. If they can by some strange change prove that, then whoever they prove it against is who they need to look to for restitution. In this particular case it sounds like that would be the missing person, if anyone - and possibly no one, assuming that what is being reported is accurate and complete.

 

[Hawgman]

If they need to sue anybody they should be suing the guy who took off. The family received the money in good faith.

 

[Glocktogo]

Yep, sue the guy who took out the policy on his life and committed fraud, not the beneficiaries who knew nothing of the scam.

What a narcissistic a-hole.

 

[OKC03Cobra]

This guy is just more proof that homosexuality is an extreme narcissistic personality disorder.

 

[BadgeBunny]

What a narcissistic a-hole.

This ... Bastard ...

 

[Danny Tanner]

This guy is just more proof that homosexuality is an extreme narcissistic personality disorder.

No, this guy is the result of ignorance and intolerance towards homosexuality. To confirm to society's homophobic "norms", he was forced to live a life that wasn't his own and it became too much for him, just as it would for many of us if we were forced to live a life of homosexuality even though we're heterosexuals.

Nothing can excuse abandoning your family, but you can at least understand what caused him to break.

 

[TedKennedy]

No, this guy is the result of ignorance and intolerance towards homosexuality. To confirm to society's homophobic "norms", he was forced to live a life that wasn't his own and it became too much for him, just as it would for many of us if we were forced to live a life of homosexuality even though we're heterosexuals.

Nothing can excuse abandoning your family, but you can at least understand what caused him to break.

He was "forced"??? Poor guy. I see where he's coming from now.

 

[Danny Tanner]

He was "forced"???

That's what I said. Shall I copy and paste?

 

[kroberts2131]

That's what I said. Shall I copy and paste?

Who forced him?