Man Arrested After Double Life Unravels : Mystery: Alleged amnesiac is identified as a husband who abandoned his family 14 years ago.

A Lake Forest electronics technician who claimed he had amnesia after a three-week disappearance was arrested Friday when authorities identified him as a man who mysteriously left his wife and seven children in Illinois nearly 14 years ago.

Clifford Wraymond Leighton, whose fiancee launched a high-profile search when he disappeared Jan. 22, is really Gary Elliott, 49, said sheriff’s deputies who arrested him on charges of perjury over the use of a false name in applying for documents such as a driver’s license.

Elliott’s 1979 disappearance during a weekend trip to St. Louis to take part in a chess tournament sparked a massive manhunt and an outpouring of community sympathy for Elliott’s wife, Maxine, and seven children, ages 5 to 16, in rural Coffeen, Ill. Orange County authorities said Friday that Elliott has been living in California since 1981 under the identity of a Simi Valley child who died in 1953 at the age of 2 1/2.

Maxine Elliott, who still lives in Coffeen, declined to comment.

But Jennifer Bradford, the man’s stunned fiancee, said outside the sheriff’s headquarters that she remains loyal. “I’m going to stand by him until this is cleared up. We were getting married, and of course we can’t do that now, but I love him, and I haven’t changed my mind. This is hard to believe.”

After two hours of questioning, authorities said, Elliott said he had abandoned his family and taken another identity. When asked why, he replied, “I don’t know. I have to think about it,” according to Sheriff’s Lt. Randy Blair.

The U.S. State Department is also expected to investigate the case because Elliott is suspected of applying for a passport using a false name, which is a federal offense, Blair said.

According to investigators, Elliot’s purported cover began unraveling Jan. 22, when he was reported missing by his fiancee. When he was found last Sunday, lying unconscious on a roadside near rural Hemet, Elliott claimed to have amnesia about the weeks he was missing.

But investigators say they already suspected that there was more to his story than a simple missing person’s report.

Based on information Bradford had given sheriff’s investigators to help find Elliott, authorities said they found a former employer in Illinois who identified Leighton and Elliott as the same person.

Unaware of the investigation, Elliott and Bradford were called to Sheriff’s Department headquarters in Santa Ana.

In addition to information from Missouri and Illinois, authorities had Elliott’s brother fly to the Southland to make a positive identification. Deputies waited until after the brother’s identification and after Elliott made a statement to investigators before telling Bradford about his alleged double identity late Friday afternoon.

“She was very upset,” said investigator White. Bradford was allowed to meet with Elliott, and “both were very emotional during the meeting,” White said.

Times staff writer Lily Dizon contributed to this story.