Is this man a toddler missing since 1955?

[BeastofBears]

DNA tests are in progress, but a man who might be Steven Damman has come forward. Enjoy reading his mother's story of how he was kidnapped from the baby stroller parking area in front of the market. Times have changed!!!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6514677.ece

[lighthousedazy]

DNA tests are in progress, but a man who might be Steven Damman has come forward. Enjoy reading his mother's story of how he was kidnapped from the baby stroller parking area in front of the market. Times have changed!!!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6514677.eceIt would definately be a happy ending and I do hope it is Steven Damman. I know that times were much safer back then than they are now, but I still can't understand a mom leaving her children outside in front of a store. Maybe the carts did not provide for transporting the children. Everything is different now. When my kids were small, if you had to change the baby in a restaurant or store, you had to put a blanket and the little one on the floor (yuck, filthy) or go out to the car. No changing tables. My mum in law worked at a Food Fair in Long Island about this time, but not sure which town. She has passed on so I cant ask her, but I am sure she probably heard of this case.

[samanthajane13]

By JOHN FLESHER, Associated Press Writer John Flesher, Associated Press Writer – 56 mins ago

KALKASKA, Mich. – The same chubby cheeks. The same round face and bright, blue eyes. And, most important, the faint scar on his chin.

John Barnes does indeed bear a striking resemblance to photos of a 2-year-old boy who was snatched from outside a bakery on New York's Long Island in 1955. And he hopes DNA tests will confirm the suspicions he's harbored virtually his entire life — that the couple who raised him were not his biological parents.

"I'm really glad that I'm finally finding all of this out, finding out who I'm related to. Because I didn't want to get old and die and not know," Barnes, a laborer who is now in his 50s, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The idea Barnes was kidnapped five decades ago has "flabbergasted" the family he has known for his entire life. Asked about a possible abduction, the man who raised Barnes called the idea "a bunch of foolishness."

"I'm his dad," said Richard Barnes, who shook his head and replied, "no, no," when asked by a reporter if he had kidnapped John Barnes.

The woman who grew up as his sister said she's willing to undergo DNA testing to prove they are biological siblings.

"I can't begin to know why he would think this," said Cheryl Barnes, 50, who lives with her father. "Everybody in my family thinks John looks just like my dad."

But Barnes said he never really bonded with the mother and father who raised him. He said they didn't look like him, and they just didn't seem like family.

"They would say, 'Oh, you look like your grandpa so-and-so or your uncle so-and-so.' But they never had any pictures to show me to compare it with. ... I just had a hunch that something was fishy," Barnes said.

"I never asked them if they kidnapped me. I asked them why I was so different from them," Barnes said of his parents.

John Barnes said the woman who raised him hinted before her death about a decade ago that she was not his biological mother.

"She requested that I come over there by myself, and she wanted to talk to me. I think that's what she was trying to tell me," he said.

Years earlier, Barnes had started his own investigation and found some potential answers on the Internet — a few pictures that led him to conclude he could be the missing toddler, Stephen Damman.

Barnes said pictures of the missing boy's mother when she was a young adult resembled what he looked like at the same age.

"I thought I looked like her, so I had something to sink my teeth into," said Barnes, who has done farm and factory work but is currently unemployed.

The mother, Marilyn Damman, left the boy and his 7-month-old sister waiting outside a bakery while she went inside to shop on Oct. 31, 1955, according to police and news accounts at the time.

Police in New York's Nassau County have said a Michigan man contacted their office in the past few months, saying he believes he is the missing toddler. Barnes said the FBI took a sample of his DNA via a cheek swab in March, and he's now "waiting for the FBI to tell me who I'm related to."

"I don't know if I'm related to the Dammans or the Barneses. I'm just waiting for the DNA results," Barnes said during an interview at his trailer home, located on a dirt road in Kalkaska, almost 200 miles northwest of Detroit, where he lives with his wife and a 12-year-old Labrador.

Back in 1955, Marilyn Damman came out of the bakery after 10 minutes but could not find her children. The stroller, with only her daughter inside, was found around the corner from the market a short time later. A flier at the time said the boy walked with his toes turned out and had a small scar under his chin.

"Yeah, I do have a scar," Barnes told the AP as he pointed to a faint line, less than an inch, that runs below his chin and slightly up the right side of his face. "This story's really strange. I can't believe it myself sometimes."

Barnes said he was born in 1955 — the same year a 2-year-old Stephen Damman disappeared — but only saw his birth certificate once and no longer has a copy. He said the FBI is looking into the discrepancy as part of its investigation.

Barnes said he began his research around 1992, doing it the "old-fashioned way" and not "getting anywhere." Barnes said he went to Florida, his supposed birthplace, but did not make much progress until he was doing online research within the past year.

Richard Barnes is retired and lives in a rural subdivision just eight miles from his son, although the two have not talked in about a year. Richard Barnes said his son was born in a Navy hospital in Pensacola, Fla., on Aug. 18, 1955.

"We brought him home two days later, and he's never been out of our sight," the elder Barnes said, referring to John's childhood.

Cheryl Barnes said John had never been close to the rest of the family and previously had suggested he'd been switched at birth.

"He wanted to be by himself, do his own thing, be a loner," she said. "I feel bad for him that he feels this way. I feel bad for my dad. This is going to leave a lasting scar on him."

During his research on the kidnapping, the younger Barnes said he drove to Newton, Iowa, where Jerry Damman, the father of the missing boy, lives. But they did not meet.

"I didn't want to, you know, say, 'Well, I'm your long-lost son,'" Barnes said. "I just wanted to get a look at the guy."

Physically, Barnes resembles somewhat the Iowa farmer he believes could be his biological father, though they are far from identical. Both men have fair skin with a ruddy complexion. Both have blue eyes and wide, round faces.

Reached Wednesday in Iowa, Damman told the AP "it's almost too good to believe" that Barnes could be his son.

Barnes said he has become close with the woman who could be his sister, Pamela Horne of Kansas City, and talks with her on the phone each day. They did a home DNA test in March.

"We got a really high score on it," indicating that they two could be related. "That's how the FBI got involved," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Frank Eltman and Amy Westfeldt in New York, Nigel Duara and Melanie S. Welte in Iowa, and AP researcher Susan James contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090618/ap_on_re_us/us50_years_missing

[Marian Paroo]

Isn't there another thread for this?

Signing on for both so I get all the news.

[samanthajane13]

Mich. man scoffs at son's suspicion he was taken
By JOHN FLESHER, Associated Press Writer John Flesher, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 47 mins ago

KALKASKA, Mich. – The father of a Michigan man who believes he was snatched from his real parents in New York half a century ago called the speculation "a bunch of foolishness."

John Barnes has long suspected the couple who raised him were not his biological parents, and now he's awaiting DNA tests to find out if he was the 2-year-old boy who disappeared outside a bakery in Long Island, New York while his mother shopped inside.

"I'm his dad," John's father, Richard Barnes, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. He replied, "No, no," when asked by a reporter whether he had kidnapped John Barnes. He called the notion "a bunch of foolishness."

John Barnes on Thursday brushed off the comments from his father in an interview with NBC's "Today" show. He said he's "pretty confident" that the tests will indicate he was the missing boy.

"I've always wanted to know who my real relatives were and where I came from," he told the interviewer.

Cheryl Barnes, Richard's daughter, said she was "flabbergasted" by John's claims and was willing to undergo DNA testing to prove they are biological siblings.

"I can't begin to know why he would think this," said Cheryl Barnes, 50. "Everybody in my family thinks John looks just like my dad."

For his part, John Barnes said he never really bonded with the mother and father who raised him. He said they didn't look like him and just didn't seem like family.

"I just had a hunch that something was fishy," said Barnes, a laborer who is now in his 50s.

"I never asked them if they kidnapped me. I asked them why I was so different from them," he said of his parents.

Police in Nassau County, N.Y., have said a Michigan man contacted their office in the past few months saying he believed he was the missing toddler. Barnes said the FBI took a sample of his DNA via a cheek swab in March.

"I don't know if I'm related to the Dammans or the Barneses. I'm just waiting for the DNA results," he said during an interview at his mobile home, located on a dirt road in Kalkaska, almost 200 miles northwest of Detroit, where he lives with his wife and dog.

Years earlier, Barnes started his own investigation and found some potential answers on the Internet — a few pictures that led him to conclude he could be the missing toddler, Stephen Damman.

Barnes said pictures of the missing boy's mother when she was a young adult resembled what he looked like at the same age.

"I thought I looked like her, so I had something to sink my teeth into," he said.

The mother, Marilyn Damman, left the boy and his 7-month-old sister waiting outside a bakery while she went inside to shop on Oct. 31, 1955, according to police and news accounts at the time.

Marilyn Damman came out of the bakery after 10 minutes but could not find her children. The stroller, with only her daughter inside, was found around the corner from the market a short time later. A flier at the time said the boy walked with his toes turned out and had a small scar under his chin.

"Yeah, I do have a scar," John Barnes told the AP as he pointed to a faint line, less than an inch, that runs below his chin and slightly up the right side of his face.

Barnes said he was born in 1955 — the same year a 2-year-old Stephen Damman disappeared — but only saw his birth certificate once and doesn't have a copy. He said the FBI is looking into the discrepancy as part of its investigation.

Richard Barnes is retired and lives eight miles from his son, although the two have not talked in about a year. He said his son was born in a Navy hospital in Pensacola, Fla., on Aug. 18, 1955.

"We brought him home two days later, and he's never been out of our sight," the elder Barnes said, referring to John's childhood.

Cheryl Barnes, who lives with her father, said John had never been close to the rest of the family and previously had suggested he'd been switched at birth.

"He wanted to be by himself, do his own thing, be a loner," she said. "I feel bad for him that he feels this way. I feel bad for my dad. This is going to leave a lasting scar on him."

During his research on the kidnapping, the younger Barnes said he drove to Newton, Iowa, where Jerry Damman, the father of the missing boy, lives. But they did not meet.

Physically, Barnes resembles somewhat the Iowa farmer he believes could be his biological father, though they are far from identical. Both men have fair skin with a ruddy complexion, blue eyes and wide, round faces.

Reached Wednesday in Iowa, Damman told the AP "it's almost too good to believe" that Barnes could be his son.

Barnes said he has become close with the woman who could be his sister, Pamela Horne of Kansas City. Horne said on the "Today" show Thursday morning that she felt an instant bond with John Barnes.

"When we first talked, it was just an immediate friendship," Horne said. "Like we had known each other for years."

They did a home DNA test in March and he said it indicated they could be related.

"I'm really glad that I'm finally finding all of this out, finding out who I'm related to," Barnes said. "Because I didn't want to get old and die and not know."

___

Associated Press writers Frank Eltman and Amy Westfeldt in New York, Nigel Duara and Melanie S. Welte in Iowa, and AP researcher Susan James contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090618/ap_on_re_us/us50_years_missing

[samanthajane13]

FBI: Test shows Mich. man not long-missing NY boy
By JOHN FLESHER, Associated Press Writer John Flesher, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 26 mins ago

KALKASKA, Mich. – DNA testing disproved a Michigan man's suspicions that he was a toddler kidnapped on New York's Long Island in 1955, the FBI said Thursday, closing a chapter in a bizarre mystery that started after he began researching his roots on the Internet.

The FBI said in a statement that a test showed John Barnes, an unemployed man in his 50s who lives in a trailer in northwest Michigan, is not Stephen Damman, who disappeared at age 2 from outside an East Meadow market while his mother shopped.

The sample showed Barnes could not have the same mother as Pamela Damman Horne, the sister of the toddler who was with him when he disappeared, the FBI said. She was found in her stroller, unharmed, around the corner from the market.

The case had raised the hopes of the toddler's father, Jerry Damman, who runs a 440-acre farm in Iowa, and stunned the community where the Halloween kidnapping occurred. Damman, now 78, had said he hoped for a resolution after five decades of silence.

"It's too bad we had to go through all of this for actually nothing in the end," he told The Associated Press.

Barnes has said he has long suspected the couple who raised him are not his biological parents, and the FBI took his DNA sample after he connected with Horne and took a trip to Iowa to try and catch a glimpse of the man he believed to be his father. He said he began investigating his origins years ago because he believed he never fit in.

Photos of the missing toddler's mother on the Internet led him to believe he could be Stephen. Barnes said pictures of the missing boy's mother when she was a young adult resembled what he looked like at the same age, so he started looking into the case.

Barnes did bear a striking resemblance to a photo of the missing toddler: He had the same chubby cheeks, the same round face and bright, blue eyes. And there was a faint line on his chin, close to the scar the missing toddler was said to have. But his father, Richard Barnes, immediately dismissed the speculation as "a bunch of foolishness," and said John Barnes was born in a Navy hospital in Pensacola, Fla., on Aug. 18, 1955.

Cheryl Barnes, John Barnes' sister, said she was not surprised by the test results. Mending fences, she said, won't be easy. "He pretty much lost two families today," she said.

"We knew that was going to be the outcome. ... My dad feels the same way. Neither of us had a doubt. My dad knows who his son is. I'm angry at my brother for putting everyone through this, turning everybody's lives upside down."

No one answered the door at John Barnes' home. A message seeking comment was also left for an attorney representing the toddler's sister in Lee's Summit, Mo.

Dwight Damman, a son from Jerry Damman's second marriage who would be the missing toddler's half brother, said he always had been skeptical of Barnes' story.

"We didn't hold out a lot of hope that it was true," Dwight Damman said. "After the pictures came out it kinda made you think, but with DNA you have to wait for the results."

___

Associated Press Writer Michael J. Crumb in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090618/ap_on_re_us/us50_years_missing