A Swiss couple believes that the mysterious Forest Boy, who emerged from the woods near Berlin last month, is their grandson.

After seeing a picture of the blonde-haired, blue-eyed teenager, who goes by the name Ray, the pair contacted police and are due to be given a DNA test to verify if they are in fact related.

Social workers and police have investigated Ray's account for nearly a month and more recently became suspicious that his story was a hoax.

It was a bizarre story that recalled European folk tales of a feral or wolf child brought up in the forest: an English-speaking boy emerged from the woods with no idea who he was or where he came from.

The story enthralled German media as local authorities raced to figure out who the teen was.

Ray, who is believed to be between the ages of 16 and 18, claimed he lived in the woods with his father Ryan for five years. According to the teen, the pair left civilization when his mother Doreen died in a car accident. They never set up a home, but instead moved through the woods, sleeping in a tent and earthen huts they found in the forest.

Ray told police that two weeks before he arrived in Berlin, his father fell to his death in the woods. The boy then buried him in a shallow grave that he covered in stones and used a compass to walk north as his father had instructed him to do.

Ray trekked to the outskirts of Berlin until he found a youth center on Sept. 5.

He has no identity card, no papers, no passport, nothing, police spokeswoman Miriam Tauchmann said at the time. He looked very good - not like a wild man or anything like that. Physically and mentally, everything is OK with him.

German authorities launched a Europe-wide appeal for any information relating to the boy's identity. Yet over time, they became suspicious of the boy's story.

Ray didn't do much to help; he insisted that he knew few details about his life before the woods. When police searched for a woman named Doreen who died in a car crash, they came across no records in the past decade.

Similarly, despite searches, no sign of a grave was found in the forests in the Harz Mountains, along the Bavarian-Czech border, or in Thuringia, where he was believed to have lived.

The boy couldn't pinpoint which forest it was that he claimed to have spent the last five years in nor did his tent look as though it had been used in the woods for five years, according to officials.

Ray triggered even more suspicion when he said that he did not want to pose for any photographs or make an appeal to find any of his family members, claiming They're all dad. I just want to get on and make a new life for myself.

The Swiss link is the most promising development so far.

If the Swiss couple's DNA matches that of the forest boy, they will immediately become his legal guardians.

There was no official word from German authorities on the case, but if it is found that the boy comes from Switzerland, he will be deported back.

Germany would also be in a position to make a claim from Switzerland for money towards Ray's upkeep

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