Timeline: The Life of Ciprian Skeid (a.k.a. Mr. Nobody)

July 15, 1998

A model in England uses a passport with name "Georges Lecuit." Read a model release signed by "Georges Lecuit" for British photographer Hywel Williams (PDF 347KB)

August 17, 1998

The real Georges Lecuit, in Paris, reports his passport stolen.

February 1999

A man using the same passport (Georges Lecuit) appears in video titled "Crush."

November 28, 1999

A man walks into Toronto General Hospital. He gives the name "Philip Staufen" and says he was born on June 7, 1975. He is released after several hours with a diagnosis of post-concussive global amnesia. Metropolitan Toronto Police Detective Stephen Bone is called in.

December 17, 1999

Staufen spends two months living with a sympathetic Ontario couple.

January 2000

Medical experts offer Staufen free amnesia therapy. He refuses.

Spring to Fall 2000

Staufen lives in Toronto, then spends three weeks in Montreal.

November 2000

Staufen moves to Vancouver and meets lawyer Manuel Azevedo and his daughter Nathalie Herve-Azevedo. Manuel Azevedo takes Staufen's case and agrees to assist him in obtaining Canadian citizenship.

February 15, 2001

In an affidavit, Staufen claims he was unconscious for several days in hospital. He outlines his activities since he 'woke up' at the hospital in Toronto and pleads for Canadian citizenship, which would enable him to work and travel internationally to search for his identity. Read the affidavit (PDF 1.78MB)

May 28, 2001

B.C. court denies Staufen's petition for a birth certificate.

June 5, 2001

Minister Elinor Caplan offers a "Minister's Permit" to stay and work in Canada for 18 months. Staufen refuses.

June 15, 2001

Staufen signs a second affidavit. Azevedo's office issues a press release announcing Staufen is going on a hunger strike. Read the press release (PDF 472KB)

June 2001

Gay porn editor Sean Spence offers Manuel and Nathalie Herve-Azevedo evidence that Staufen was a porn model in Britain. Nathalie rejects it.

July 3, 2001

Sean Spence sends pictures of the gay porn model known as Georges Lecuit to Toronto Police Detective Bone.

July 13, 2001

Staufen and Nathalie Herve-Azevedo marry in Vancouver. That same month, Staufen accepts the Minister's Permit, backdated to July 5.

July 17, 2001

Manuel Azevedo quits Staufen's case.

August 29, 2001

Staufen loses his appeal for a birth certificate.

September 4, 2001

Immigration officials note that Staufen has surgically altered his nose.

October 25, 2001

Staufen changes his name to Keith Ryan.

Early 2002

He changes his name again to Sywald Skeid.

October 2002

New immigration minister says the Minister's Permit issued under the name Phillip Staufen will not renewed.

January 2003

The permit issued under the name Staufen expires. Staufen, now using the name Sywald Skeid, and Nathalie Herve-Azevedo move to Ottawa, then Montreal.

September 2003

Herve-Azevedo and Skeid move to Halifax.

Mid-February 2004

Detective Stephen Bone receives information that the real Georges Lecuit reported his passport stolen in a Break and Enter on August 17, 1998.

April 28, 2004

Skeid is called to an immigration office in Halifax, arrested and detained for being in the country illegally.

April 30, 2004

An immigration adjudicator extends Skeid's time in jail by one week.

May 7, 2004

Skeid is released with conditions. Read the Order For Release (PDF 821KB)

October 4, 2004

In Halifax, Skeid almost misses the deadline to report to Immigration. He then turns up at an Immigration office in Victoria, BC.

May 2007

Mr. Nobody finally reveals his true identity in a feature-length story in GQ magazine. He says his real name is Ciprian Skeid and that he was born and raised in Timişoara, Romania. In the article Skeid discusses his unhappy childhood, his abusive father, and his early life of poverty under the Ceaucescu regime. He says that at 19 he tried to get into college but was rejected and so was conscripted into the army. He describes that time as the worst of his life and says that that year he fled to Germany and France, where he lived illegally and began his long journey of self-reinvention.

January 2012

Skeid's whereabouts are unknown.