Families have secrets that are kept hidden for many years. When brought to light, becomes a part of the story, especially if it involves finding a missing person. Like this one, for example:
All of their lives, Mark and Will had been told that their mother abandoned the family. Since Mark and Will were two and four years old, no one had heard from their mom. The men never again saw their mother or anyone from her side of the family. Feeling the hurt of abandonment, the two never attempted to find a person they would call mom.
They were both curious about her ethnic background. Had she been Italian? Or perhaps Greek? They wondered about their own features and skin coloring, so different from everyone on their father’s side of the family. When asked those questions, their dad claimed not to know anything about his ex-wife’s heritage. And by now, neither of the men could recall their mother’s physical features anymore, and they no photos of her, either. They figured it was impossible to know how to locate people when you didn’t even know their name or what they looked like.
When their father was diagnosed with the last stages of pancreatic cancer and the family gathered on the hospice wing of the hospital, Mark and Will’s favorite aunt asked everyone to leave the room so she could speak privately with her brother.
An hour later, on his deathbed, Mark and Will’s father confessed. He met their mother when he was working in Texas. She was an immigrant, new to the United States from Ecuador. She had not left her sons. Their father had taken them away, back to Alabama, where his family lived. He knew their mother did not have the resources to find them.
After their father passed away, Mark and Will’s aunt gave them a photo of their mother, along with her first and last name. When they contacted that was the only information the brothers could provide. But thankfully, the skills and resources available to make that enough. We know how to find a missing person.
Our investigators immediately began the missing person investigation, focusing on Texas as well as Ecuador, to find this missing mom. Within days we had leads and were able to locate where she lived. The first contact with her about her sons was emotional, which is not uncommon when we find a person and fill them in on why we are calling.
This family secret had a happy ending. A few weeks later, mother and children were reunited for the first time in more than 30 years.
At , we love nothing more than happy endings.
-Brenda McGinley, CEO, All in Investigations, All in Investigations
