Michigan Man Identified As Baby Stolen From Hospital In 1964
The child was stolen from a Chicago hospital 55 years ago.
Shannon Antinori
Wed, Dec 18, 2019
New-born Paul Joseph Fronczak is shown April 26, 1964, shortly after his birth at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago. (AP Photo)
CHICAGO — After more than a half-century, a Chicago mystery is solved. In April 1964, Chester and Dora Fronczak's joy turned to terror after their newborn son, Paul, was abducted from their Chicago hospital room.
The couple eventually raised another child — an abandoned boy found in New Jersey who investigators believed might be their missing son — as their own, but in recent years, a DNA test revealed he was not related to the Fronczaks.
Now, 55 years after a woman posing as a nurse took the Fronczaks' baby, the FBI revealed they've finally found their missing son.
A man living in rural Michigan has been positively identified as Paul Joseph Fronczak, the FBI said. Authorities said the man has been told his true identity but
does not want to go public, WOOD-TV reported.
The FBI
reopened the Fronczak case in 2013.
The saga began on April 26, 1964, when Dora Fronczak gave birth to a son. The next day, a woman posing as a nurse came into her hospital room and told her she was taking the baby to be examined by a doctor — then vanished with the child.
The infant's disappearance
sparked a massive manhunt in Chicago, with 175,000 postal workers, 200 police officers searching for the baby, WGN reported.
Two years later, Dora and Chester Fronczak were contacted about a toddler who had been abandoned at a New Jersey shopping center. Investigators believed the child might be their missing son — so the couple raised him as their own.
The man who was raised as Paul Joseph Fronczak said he learned his story — and how he'd supposedly been returned to his family — when he found some newspaper clippings at age 10. He told the BBC his parents were sensitive about the subject and his mother reacted angrily when asked about the clippings.
But as an adult, he began to question whether he was really his parents' child and said he understood why the Fronczaks were so quick to agree to adopt the child investigators thought could be their missing child.
"She could either say, 'I'm not sure,' and put this child back into the system, or say, 'Yes, that's my son,' — and even if it was not,
save this child from what could be a horrible life," the man who grew up as Paul told the BBC.
A DNA kit he bought in 2012 eventually proved he was not related to the Fronczaks. A resident of Nevada, he now has a blog titled
"Foundling Paul" about his experience.
Now that the real Paul Joseph Fronczak has been identified, federal investigators have declined to provide additional details on where he lives.
WGN claims their staff have tracked the man down but are not identifying him because he is a crime victim.
Mother Dora Franczak, who now lives in the Chicago suburbs, has declined to comment, WGN said. Father
Chester Fronczak died in 2017.
LINK:
Michigan Man Identified As Baby Stolen From Hospital In 1964
