Every life's worth living, every truth's worth knowing, and every effort's worth result. Every person we come across has their own story, a different story that nobody knows about. All this starts from one's childhood, upbringing, friends, schooling and above all, the choices that one makes. This story still leaves people with mixed reactions and we are sure you too will find something strange about the question.
What happens when your life which seemed to be perfectly normal so far isn't the same anymore? What if it all happens just because of one truth that was hidden? Something similar happened to a guy who was in his 30s whose life completely changed after knowing one truth. It was no simple truth that wouldn't make much of a difference rather it was an answer to all the questions that were in this person's mind about his existence. Steve Carter, at present 39 years old, lived a regular life until one day when his curiosity unraveled the biggest answers about his life.
He was 3 and a half years old when the Carter family decided to take him home. Steve Carter's parents kept him aware of all that they knew about his life before they adopted him. The guy was aware of the fact that his parents adopted him from a foster care center in Hawaii. However, his curiosity to know his roots and the urge to learn more about his biological family led him to some unexpectedly odd details.
In 1980, Steve Carter Sr., a United States Army officer was posted on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. He was staying on the island with his wife named Pat who worked as a teacher. During this time the couple made up their mind to adopt a kid. When they went to a nearby foster care, the Carters instantly felt a strong connection with a three-and-a-half-year-old boy. As Pat said in an interview and still admits, “it was love at first sight.”
According to the files, the fair-haired infant's name was Tenzin Amea, and the little boy was brought into the foster care three years back in June 1977. The state's record also mentioned that he was born on January 16, 1977. Also, there was a brief history of his birth parents, his father was a native Hawaiian and he was taken from his mother, Jane Amea when she was detained five months after his birth. Nothing more could be known about his family.
On September 23, 1980, when all the paperwork was completed the couple was given full-time custody of this little guy. They welcomed him in his new home with a new name, William Steven Tenzin Carter. The kid who was called Tenzin before was now known as Steve Jr. It didn't take him much time to get used to a new lifestyle. Soon they moved from Hawaii, back to their town. Steve Jr. spent his childhood in Medford Lakes, a small town in southern New Jersey, the Garden State.
This kid's luck changed amazingly. Tenzin was now Steve Jr. During the 1980s and 90s, he lived an ordinary happy life with his family and friends. He was always busy in different sports or parties with the rest of the kids who lived in his neighborhood. It was the kind of life every orphan kid wishes for but very less get the opportunity. Steve Jr. got this opportunity and he has always been more than thankful for it. While everything seemed like great, Steve Jr. kept wondering about his past life and who were his real parents.
“For several years after his adoption, Pat and I had a nagging fear that someone might pop up claiming to be his biological mother or father. When nobody did, our anxiety eventually passed,” His father said in an interview and added, “we kept in contact with the woman who had him in foster care. We called her when we had questions about measles or mumps and sent her letters during the holidays.”
As he was all grown-up now, it was time for Steve Jr. to leave his parents' home for further studies related to software in the University. He had a perfect childhood with completely understanding parents, who always believed in his dreams and encouraged him to do what he likes. The young boy was sad to leave his parents behind but was also quite excited about the new life that lied ahead of him. Even at this point, he had no clue that soon his past will stand face to face with him.
“We belonged to an adoptee/birth parent clearinghouse (ALMA) that connects people who are looking for each other but never received any messages. When Steve turned 18, we asked him if he wished to continue registering on the site and he declined,” his father said in an interview. But Steve's interest was soon to return about this topic.
When Steve Jr. started living away from his parents, he started thinking about his birth parents which were a matter of laughter in his family. “With his blonde hair, blue eyes, and a light complexion,” his father explained in an interview and further added, “[he] does not strike one as being of Polynesian extraction.” This was now a confusing fact for him as the records said he was Hawaii but his features were opposite.
With so much going on in his mind, Steve Jr. decided to just see if he is Hawaiian or not. It was Christmas season and he got a DNA testing kit as one of his Christmas presents. Steve didn't give it a second thought and took the test. The test result was opposite to what the Carter family assumed all this while.
Steve received the reports and he couldn't believe that he had Scandinavian ancestry, which meant he was European. He was hoping this will end his curiosity and will help in living a normal life but the DNA reports made him more confused than ever. Signs were pushing Steve Jr. towards his past.
Back in 2011, Steve's eye stopped on one story as he could relate himself with the story of this African-American woman, Carlina White. As an infant, she was taken away from a hospital in Harlem, New York City. She had no idea of her real identity while growing up in Connecticut.
To Carlina, her kidnapper was her birth mother even after turning 23 she had the same story. Meanwhile, her actual parents never stopped searching for her. They were unaware of the fact that they were living just 45 minutes away from their daughter. Steve knew he had to do something about this. “Then Steve read about Carlina White who discovered she was kidnapped as an infant from a hospital in New York. The article mentioned references she used for her search,” his father recalls.
By this time he was a married man and was a bit doubtful if he should give it a try or not. In such moments of doubts, Tracey, his wife always supported him and insisted on him giving things a try as it might take him to a point where he could finally give his past life a closure.
Steve got all this energy after reading Carlina's story. He knew about methods related to genealogy to track long-lost relatives which seemed like a very simple task now, thanks to the internet. He followed the same procedure that Carlina mentioned and started looking for his long forgotten family on a website that is sponsored by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Steve once got access to the site started scrolling and scrolling. After scrolling more than 100s of time, his eyes instantly stopped at a photo and he was numb for a moment. It was just a beginning of all the unraveling process and Steve had no idea of where to start from. Was someone somewhere looking for him? And if that was the case then how did he even end up in foster care.
When Steve saw the picture of a person looking exactly like him, he immediately called his parents and asked them to check the website. “It was the spitting image of Steve. He called Pat and me immediately and told us to look at the website. We were flabbergasted!” his father recalled.
The list of missing boys showed a person named Marx Panama Moriarty Barnes who was missing since June 1977. Along with this name, there was an age progression sketch of Mark ie, how he might look now, as a young teen. “I got chills. I was like, holy crap, that’s me,” Steve recalled that moment in an interview.
Steve wasn't sure about what he just saw and he immediately decided to get in touch with the authorities, to know how he could be certain about the reality. He was guided through a process of DNA testing. Thus, Steve got a DNA test done by the professionals this time but it was about to take around 8 months for the results to be out. Steve patiently waited for the reports and there it was, 8 months later.
The reports stated that Marx and Steve were the same people. He wasn't sure if he wanted to meet anyone who posted his missing report on the website and that's when his wife, Tracey suggested him that he should at least go ahead and know the whole story about how he came to that Hawaiian foster care in 1977. Steve Jr. finally decided to know the whole story.
When he got into deeper, he got to know that on June 21, 1977, journalist and Vietnam vet Mark Barnes was working in the garden of his home in Hau’ula, Oahu, Hawaii. He lived there with his girlfriend, Charlotte Moriarty, who took their six-month-old son to the nearby grocery store. While Mark was occupied with planting, Charlotte bid him bye and took off. But the two never returned home.
Charlotte was a free bird, she was in the habit of taking off without telling anyone and used to return whenever she felt. When Charlotte never made it home after three weeks, Mark finally informed the police who weren't able to do trace her anywhere. The police never found Marx and her mother. Their photos stayed on the missing person's list for years after that but no result.
Mark searched for them for more than a year, with their photographs in his hand in all the nearby blocks but never saw his family again. Never did he imagine that his little Marx would be living a wholly different life as a different person far far away. Steve knew his father but he still wanted to know about his mother and he further searched only to discover the more weird truth. "I spent about a year and a half going crazy driving around the island. It was rough," Steve's birth father recalled.
When Marx and Charlotte were supposed to go for a regular walk, Charlotte actually changed her way and moved towards a different part of Oahu, and made their way to a random empty house. When the owner of the house returned, she called the police as she sensed something suspicious. When the police arrived Charlotte managed to play a trick that changed two families' fate forever.
When the police reached Charlotte made up fake names of her and her son. She said her name was Jane and her son's name was Tenzin Amea. To check on her, when they asked her son's date of birth, she instantly came up with a false date of birth too. This made police trust that she wasn't lying and they never assumed that Tenzin could be the missing Marx.
Charlotte was diagnosed with mental illness and sent to a psychiatric facility, and Marx was given to the state's foster care. Within a few days, Charlotte managed to get her way out of the hospital and was never seen again. With Charlotte going missing the true story of her son vanished too. Marx was living just 30 miles away from his birth father's place for the next three years. But nobody got even little idea about Marx's existence. Apparently, his father wasn't the only one affected by his going missing.
Mark wasn't the only person who was left without Marx but his half-sister, Jennifer who was eight years older than Marx never lost hope of his return. She always prayed for her younger brother. In 2001, she convinced the authorities to reopen the case files once again. And as per the procedure, they assigned an artist to make a sketch of how Marx would possibly look like as a teen. This was how Steve Jr. got his hands on the picture and his true identity was revealed.
After the truth was revealed, unlike what was expected out of him, Steve wasn't in a hurry to meet his birth father and sister. He shared his feelings in an interview that he felt “terrified.” He wasn't yet ready to meet his new set of relatives.
"I felt like we'd taken someone else's child, though that wasn't true. Truthfully I thought they were dead. I was really numb," said Jennifer who recalls growing up 'scanning crowds' to find her missing brother. While the truth was now clear, Steve wasn't yet prepared to face his birth relatives.
Steve decided to take his time to get familiar with the fact that he could see his birth father. After months of realizing the truth, he finally made a call to his sister, Jennifer and later on talked with his biological father, Mark too. Mark who now used to live in California was overwhelmed after listening to the voice of his son. Mark remembered the moment, “all I could say was, ‘Wow. Oh wow. Wow.’”
While Steve was dealing with his own fears, his adoptive parents were concerned too. “On an emotional level, I felt like we’d taken someone else’s child. It’s taken a while for us to get used to the idea that we have to share him. But I’m sure it’s going to be wonderful,” his parents recall.
“Steve has spoken to his biological father several times. Pat and I have not. We have no plans to meet him, but with Steve’s permission, we might somewhere down the road,” his adoptive father told the newspapers. It took them time to get along with the idea.
“We met the artist who created the photo Steve discovered on the web. We also met several investigators from the center and one from the Honolulu Police Department who all worked together on the case following Steve’s initial contact,” tells Steve's adoptive father who wanted to know more about his son's history.
After their son's reunion with his birth father, Steve's adoptive parents have shown a lot of interest in the police work who help in bringing back families together. He said, “we learned about the wonderful work that the NCMEC does, not only to find missing children; but also to reunite parents and children who have been separated by disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. It’s an amazing group of highly skilled and dedicated people.”
Mark finally took the step and met his birth father and sister Jennifer. His birth father and the Carter family met later in the coming year. And finally accepted the fact that Steve is both families' son. It was an emotional moment for the two families.
https://youtu.be/MfVmxet45EM
“We believe Steve’s story is one of hope for all those parents who have suffered and continue to suffer the unexpected disappearance of a child,” his parents understand that how Steve is fortunate enough to reunite with his family and live a happy life in the meanwhile with the Carters.
Long-lost relatives came together with the help of the internet and the police's efforts. Steve and Jennifer still managed to stay in touch, they meet each other whenever they have time. Their reunion was nothing less of a miracle.
Steve's story managed to keep the flames of hope lighting for all the people who still look for their missing family members. Although with years passing, the chances decrease the hope still stays somewhere deep inside. And after knowing stories like this, people try hard to keep their missing relatives' cases open and put the missing image on a larger platform like any missing people's website governed by the authorities.
The story of Steve Jr. has been unbelievable. When anyone's known goes missing, people tend to post on Facebook which again has helped in many cases. But the thing is how many percents of people manage to make it back to their real families?
Once anyone loses track of their loved ones, they rarely ever make it back to each other. If Steve's sister wouldn't have made her efforts to get the case reopened, and Steve, on the other hand, wouldn't have given it a try after knowing the story of the missing girl, they would have never got a chance for positive closure.