Identity confirmed of man hospitalized after being found injured by road in Lehigh Acres
The identity of an injured man at Lee Health has been confirmed as that of a person whose family has been searching for him for more than a week.
Steven Adolphius Edwards, 41, was brought to Gulf Coast Hospital Medical Center in Fort Myers on July 22, admitted with a head injury, had no identification and was not alert, a hospital news release said.
Tuesday afternoon Missy Freeland, a friend of the family, said Edwards had been positively identified.
We've been searching everywhere for him with no luck," Freeland said. "And now his mother can get the answers she needs."
Pat Dolce, Lee Health communications traffic project manager, confirmed the positive identification of Edwards and said the family was reuniting with him soon.
Earlier, on a Facebook note reacting to a News-Press story Tuesday morning about the man, Freeland also identified him as Edwards: "that is Stevie for sure ..we've been looking for him for over a week...We've called the hospital to let them know and have called his mom several times but it goes to voicemail. We filed a missing persons report last week..."
Facebook comments about Edwards also said his sister, Amanda Leigh Edwards, had recently been killed. She was the bystander victim of a fatal shooting July 11 in Alva.
Amanda Edwards was sitting in a car in an Alva driveway and was caught in the crossfire between two men when she was fatally shot.
Freeland, who said Edwards works for her fiancé, said his sister's death "has been very hard on him."
More: LCSO: Alva argument leads to fatal shooting of woman; Lehigh Acres man facing homicide charges
Family members said they had not seen or talked to Edwards since July 21.
Freeland said the family was told that Edwards might have been the victim of a hit-and-run crash. "It hasn't been confirmed yet," she said. "But that is what we were told."
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In the Lee Health release, the man was described to be in his 40s, 130 pounds and 5-foot-7 with several tattoos. It was the tattoos that cinched his identification.
"We gave (the Lee County Sheriff's Office) all the information they needed to identify him," Freeland said. "Including his Facebook page, which clearly shows on his cover photo pics of his tattoos."
Dolce said in the release: "He was found unconscious on the side of a road in Lehigh Acres."
Dolce said attempts by law enforcement to identify the man by his fingerprints had been unsuccessful.
Connect with breaking news reporter Michael Braun: MichaelBraunNP (Facebook), @MichaelBraunNP (Twitter) or mbraun@news-press.com.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Injured man at Gulf Coast Hospital identified after picture published
