Ashley Menatta was a free spirit who wandered the globe, including making regular trips to Australia.
Over the decades it wasn't odd for her to lose contact with family members for long periods.
That's why when she was discovered on February 1 with amnesia, no identification and stricken with cancer on a street corner near San Diego, in southern California, there were few clues and no missing persons reports to help identify her.
Doctors diagnosed her with stage-three cancer, removed a volleyball-sized tumour from her ovary and were also forced to take out her uterus and other organs.
For six months she relied on nursing staff and other strangers for help as she underwent chemotherapy, not knowing who she was and fearing she would die before the mystery was solved.
She gave herself the name Sam, inspired by the biblical story of Samuel.
One of the few comforts were dreams and faint memories of swimming and dining at Perth's Cottesloe Beach, Bondi and Byron Bay.
Through social media, the mystery was solved on Wednesday.
"Well, we have some great news," Ms Menatta and the supporters who set up a Facebook page to help the search announced to the thousands of people across the globe who united to help.
The FBI credited social media for solving the puzzle.
A nephew of Ms Menatta's saw an online story on Wednesday about the woman known as Sam, recognised her photo and checked with family members.
They contacted police who then alerted the FBI.
The FBI put the family members in contact with Ms Menatta.
"They were able to have some private communications amongst themselves and based on that she is self-identifying herself as Ashley Menatta," FBI special agent Darrell Foxworth told AAP.
With her dreams and fondness for Australia, as well as a hybrid Australian-British-American accent, many thought she may have been Australian.
But she is a well-travelled American who was living near San Diego, not far from where she was found.
The 53-year-old was born in Pennsylvania, never married, had lived in Arizona and has sisters in Colorado and Maryland.
Her family lost track of her in 2013, around the same time she moved to southern California.
"It was extremely emotional, we were all sobbing," Ms Menatta, recalling the moment she was told her identity, told San Diego's NBC7 TV station.
"They're so sorry I had to go through what I did during this time without them."
Ms Menatta will live with her sister in Maryland.
Her sisters told her she was a regular visitor to Australia on "extended trips".
"I've been going there throughout my life, she said.
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