After seeing Eric marrying Brooke, Stephanie grew depressed. She dealt with an enormous lot of mental stress that led to a stroke. It was a minor stroke, but one that left side effects. Headache and amnesia. As Stephanie suffered it, her purse was pushed under the bed in her bedroom and she passed out for a short while. As she woke up, she went to her car and started driving, not knowing where she was going. She stopped in downtown Los Angeles, looking at the homeless people and shaking her head thinking what a terrible life to life to be homeless. And then she was robbed. They took all her belongings, even her car, jewels (not her wedding ring that she still wore) and clothes. Stephanie didn’t know what to do. She had no memory at all about who she was, who her family and friends were and where she lived. Everything was a blank. This of course confused and scared her. An Afro-American woman named Ruthanne Owens found Stephanie and realized she was new to street life. So she decided to let Stephanie come with her for the night. She showed Stephanie to the ready for teardown building Ruth was living in. Stephanie spent the night on the floor, looking out and thinking. Ruth tried to befriend her by asking of Stephanie’s life. But Stephanie didn’t remember and couldn’t tell. Ruth realized she was amnesiac. But they couldn’t go to the police or anywhere for help as Ruth had to spend all days searching for food, which was not an easy thing. She took Stephanie with her and began teaching her how to look for food in dumpsters and trashcans. By the end of the day, they had found enough food to last the rest of the evening and “enjoyed” dinner which was often cold can food and other thrown out leftovers. The two women started talking about Stephanie’s past and what it could be. Ruth suggested that she worked as a maid, which Stephanie didn’t think she had been.
As they were out searching for food one day, Stephanie cut herself on a rose thorn. And somehow, Stephanie reacted on it. Ruth suggested that she might have had a rose garden. Thorn could mean so mush, she said. Even a man´s name. That had Stephanie thinking, Thorne…? Somehow, it rang a bell in her mind. But she still couldn´t remember.
Back home, the Forresters started wondering where Stephanie was. But their conclusion was that she needed to be alone as she had just been to Eric and Brooke’s wedding.
One evening, Brooke and Eric had been having dinner at Pierre’s. As they left, they spotted two women from a distance eating from a dumpster. As Eric went to the car, Stephanie turned and Brooke spotted her. Brooke quickly pushed the thought out of her mind that it could be Stephanie. It just couldn´t be… But still, the thought remained in Brooke’s mind.
Ruth and Stephanie continued to talk about her past and Ruth realized she had got to have a name to call her new friend by. And as Stephanie didn’t know her name, they had to pick a new temporary name. Ruth suggested “Liz”. That name had Stephanie thinking. There was something about Liz… (The name Elizabeth “Beth” Logan went by in collage). But she still couldn´t remember, so they decided her new name was Liz.
Ruth´s friend, Adam Banks, came over and he immediately took a liking in “Liz”. He took her out on a “date” and they shared a kiss. Later, Ruth and Stephanie were thrown out of their abandoned hotel building by a thug named Hector. They were forced to sleep in a cardboard box over night.
Sally Spectra found two homeless women outside in one of Spectra’s trash bins. She went out to chase them off. And as she grabbed Stephanie from behind to throw her out, she recognized her as her nemesis. Sally was horrified and Stephanie and Ruth left quickly before Sally could stop them. Sally was sure it was Stephanie and called the Forresters who now knew Stephanie was missing. But they refused to believe in Sally, so Sally turned to the press and told them what happened. The Forresters were livid to read the tabloids; “I found Stephanie Forrester in my dumpster!”. They went over to Sally’s and told them exactly what they thought of her. But Sally refused to give up. She was certain of what she had seen. And she decided to find Stephanie and bring her back home by herself. She had flyers with Stephanie’s photo on put up all over town. This only infuriated the Forresters more. But Sally´s plan had been successful. Adam had seen one of the flyers and immediately recognized “Liz”. He and Ruthanne made Stephanie go home even thought the idea scared her as she couldn’t remember. They had a cab take her to the mansion and she was warmly greeted back from the family. Ridge, Felicia and Eric. She told them that she didn’t remember any of them which hurt them. They wanted her to go to the hospital and it took a promise to convince her to go. If the doctor would say she was fine, they would be forced to let her go back to her friends on the street. Brooke was irritated that Eric cared so much about how Stephanie was doing and she doubted Stephanie really had lost her memory. Brooke was sure Stephanie was faking it all to get closer to Eric which seemed to work. But she realized she was wrong when she came to the hospital and Stephanie thought Brooke was her second daughter and hugged her.
Stephanie was admitted to the hospital overnight and Eric and their children did their best to convince her to stay home after leaving the hospital. Eric succeeded as he told his former wife that she would never forgive herself when her memory returned if she had left her children. He wanted to spare her that pain. So she decided to stay home.