NY NY - Steven Damman, 2, East Meadow, 31 Oct 1955

[icherish]

Awww.. I was skeptical, but I admit I was hoping...

I'm so sorry for Steven's family. To be encouraged with new hope after all these years and then have it gone in an instant is devastating, I'm sure.

 

[Trino]

Test: Mich. Man Not Missing NY Boy

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/19789694/detail.html

JB has received his 15 minutes of fame (plus more). IMO he needs professional help to deal with family issues.

 

[daisy.faithfull]

Hopefully, the FBI also took DNA from the Barnes family to compare...maybe that would solve a lot of issues and bring all of them some comfort of some kind.

I agree. Maybe the mother was having an affair.

Do we know when the Barnes were married? Or when John was born in relationship to the marriage? It could of been a shotgun marriage and John's mother could have been marrying the wrong "gun".

I doubt that the Barnes family is going to volunteer their DNA, they have got to be verrrrrrrrrrry upset about this whole situation. And without FBI involvement they would have to go to a talk show because its obvious that the home DNA tests aren't effective. Maybe John's sister would participate if only to help John see the truth.

Would have been nice if the John would have done tests with the the Barnes' before involving the Damman's, if not before he began his whole search.

 

[Elphaba]

Is there a chance that this man was trying to pull off an elaborate hoax to take advantage of the Damman family, but didn't realize that it would get this much attention? Like I said, the Damman sister was very, very guarded on GMA this morning... she seemed extremely detached and struggled to even give simple answers. I would like to know more about Barnes background.

 

[passionflower]

DNA back, he is not the little boy............

 

[Bud]

Well, he could have been the product of an affair but that would still make him the biological child of the mother which he said she was trying to tell him he was not. Plus that wouldn't explain not having a birth cert and the fact they really look a lot a like.

If you want to get really far fetched and use an affair how about this. Maybe the missing boys mother had an affair with Richard barns. She didn't want the child any longer so she faked the kidnaping as a way to give the child back to the real father without disclosing the affair to her husband. That is juicy and most likely NOT true!

Stranger things have happened. Just sayin'.

Hmmmm... what about the DNA test that he said him and the Damman sister took, in private? Is the man lying about those results and them showing they were probably kin? I saw the Damman sister on ABC news this morning and she seemed very VERY guarded in her answers and had her lawyer with her.

I agree. Maybe the mother was having an affair.

Do we know when the Barnes were married? Or when John was born in relationship to the marriage? It could of been a shotgun marriage and John's mother could have been marrying the wrong "gun".

I doubt that the Barnes family is going to volunteer their DNA, they have got to be verrrrrrrrrrry upset about this whole situation. And without FBI involvement they would have to go to a talk show because its obvious that the home DNA tests aren't effective. Maybe John's sister would participate if only to help John see the truth.

Would have been nice if the John would have done tests with the the Barnes' before involving the Damman's, if not before he began his whole search.

I find it hard to believe Barnes is not Steven Damman. The resemblance is uncanny... and the scar and the mole... so many coincidences.

If Steven was the result of an affair... the DNA would come back negative for the 'father' but a possible match for the sister... since they would be half-siblings.

Just speculation... but stranger things have happened.

 

[Bud]

They performed a mitochondrial DNA test.

"But samples from Barnes and Horne analyzed by the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, determined that they do not share the same mother, the FBI in Detroit said Thursday.

Sandra Berchtold, spokeswoman for the FBI Detroit bureau, said the FBI follows strict testing protocols and used mitochondrial DNA to determine Barnes and Horne were not linked to the same mother."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/18/ny.missing.boy.mystery/index.html

He's definitely not Steven Damman.

 

[grievousangel]

I don't understand why he didn't have his DNA tested along with some of the members of the the family he was raised in....why dredge up the memories of the Damman family when it's not necessary.

 

[marion]

Does anyone else find it strange that this whole thing was resolved only a couple days after the story broke? It's just weird that they were saying it would take a month to get DNA results back and here it is a day or so later and it's already back...... Something's just not right about this......

 

[colette]

I was wrong. I don't know what DNA tests the man and his possible sister took that said they were related... but the FBI says no. The DNA shows they are NOT related.

KALKASKA, Mich. (AP) — DNA testing confirmed that a 54-year-old Michigan man is not a toddler kidnapped in Long Island, N.Y., in 1955, the FBI said Thursday. The FBI said testing showed John Barnes of Kalkaska, Mich., is not Stephen Damman, who disappeared at age 2 from outside an East Meadow bakery while his mother shopped.......


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gSOZkmjBnudVh0eITixQbHluZydQD98TBDV80

Also....

In addition, a certified birth certificate obtained by Newsday on Thursday through Barnes's father shows John Barnes was born on Aug. 18, 1955, in Pensacola, Fla. That would make him less than 3 months old at the time of the disappearance. Damman was nearly 3 years old when he vanished and sparked one of the largest missing-child hunts in Long Island history.



http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ny-lidamman0619,0,465555.story

 

[Elphaba]

Does anyone else find it strange that this whole thing was resolved only a couple days after the story broke? It's just weird that they were saying it would take a month to get DNA results back and here it is a day or so later and it's already back...... Something's just not right about this......

Since the story broke well into the investigation, more than likely (unless stated otherwise) the testing was already well underway.

 

[Openmind]

Really a sad story. I can't imagine how the Damman family must feel tonight, but the Barnes family is in grief as well.

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.

From this article: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,527249,00.html

 

[christee]

I might have missed this in previous posts-if so, please forgive. Didn't the Dammans divorce after the kidnapping? I think Mr Damman remarried and if Pam's mom is the 2nd wife then the Mtdna test should show they do not have the same mother. I wonder when Mr Damman remarried?

 

[Kateyes]

I might have missed this in previous posts-if so, please forgive. Didn't the Dammans divorce after the kidnapping? I think Mr Damman remarried and if Pam's mom is the 2nd wife then the Mtdna test should show they do not have the same mother. I wonder when Mr Damman remarried?

christee - I had some thoughts along the same line. But I would hope the FBI would be savvy enough to ensure that Pam's mother and the woman John thought was his mother- the first Mrs. Damman - were the same woman.
Not that large government agencies don't make mistakes... I thought that one of the newscasters stated Pam was an older sister.

Someone else posted that possibly the mother had an affair with Mr. Barnes, and left the baby there at a prearranged place for him to pick up. It does sound far-fetched, but we here at Websleuths all know that the things we sleuth here everyday are often things that cannot be made up - things that are often stranger than fiction. I do find it odd that earlier today CNN said the results would be available in 4 weeks or so, and suddenly the results are announced today. But, it seems like another "case closed."

 

[Kateyes]

Here are some things that perplex me, even though the DNA has shown John isn't Steven: Does John have a driver's license? If yes, how did he get it without a birth certificate? 2. Even if John were born while his father was in the military the state where the birth occurred would still have a record of birth. All hospitals, including military hospitals send vital statistics to the state. So, what did he use for identification when a birth certificate was needed? And, did his Barnes family siblings also not have birth certificates ? 3. If all of his siblings have birth certificates is it possible that he is another abducted child from around the year 1955? 4. Does John have any history of mental illness to explain his strong feelings that he is not a "part" of the Barnes family? Just some thoughts.

 

[Stella]

Steven Damman went missing from Long Island, NY on Halloween of 1955. I've just made a connection to another Long Island case that occurred several months later. Another holiday, July 4, 1956, 33 day old Peter Weinberger was left in his carriage on the patio of his home by his mother. When she went to check on him, he was gone. A ransom note demanding money was left, even though the Weinbergers were not wealthy. Sometime later, baby Peter was found murdered. A man named Angelo LaMarca was arrested, convicted and executed for the crime. I wonder if this LaMarca character could possibly be the one who took the Damman boy?

 

[Trino]

In a rust to judgment IMO many Websleuthers missed the mark on this case.

JB said:
1. His dying mother MAY have started to say he was not her child. He later stated she did not, in fact, say this.

2. JB has a resemblance/scar/mole to SD. Many people resemble others.

3. JB and P had a "home" DNA test, which showed they were related. (They should ask for a refund.)

FACTS:
1. SD disappeared in NY 31 Oct, 1955. John Barnes was born in a Navy hospital in Pensacola, Fla., on Aug. 18, 1955. SD was nearly three years old when JB was born.

2. Instead of asking P for a DNA test, why didn't JB ask his father for a paternity or DNA test - or ask a sibling. (He was estranged, but it doesn't sound like he asked.)

3. JB stated he had seen a copy of his birth certificate. Why didn't he request a copy for himself? Why wouldn't he accept the results?

4. Siblings and the father of JB stated that he is their sibling.

5. JB is estranged from two older siblings and a younger one, as well as his father. Is there an underlying problem with him?

 

[Mouse]

I might have missed this in previous posts-if so, please forgive. Didn't the Dammans divorce after the kidnapping? I think Mr Damman remarried and if Pam's mom is the 2nd wife then the Mtdna test should show they do not have the same mother. I wonder when Mr Damman remarried?

Pamela is the full sister of Steven. Both of them were outside the store, but only Steven went missing. I think I read that Mr. Damman has children from his second marriage, but they are both sons. Surely the FBI would have asked if the children had the same mother before running that kind of DNA test?

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_...bi_says_michigan_man_is_not_missing_tot_.html

Excerpts:

As the FBI unveiled its findings, The News uncovered its own evidence undermining Barnes' claim: His birth certificate.

The document showed he was born in Florida's Escambia County on Aug. 18, 1955. The father was listed as Richard Lewis Barnes, and the mother as Elizabeth Anne Converse - her maiden name.

There is a birth certificate. I don't think the Barnes family was saying he'd never had a birth certificate, just that they didn't have a copy. Which isn't all that strange, since it could have been lost or destroyed in the last 50 years. I think most states allow you to use any of a number of forms of ID to get a driver's license, such as passport or military ID. (Although that's changing.) I'm pretty sure I used my military dependent's ID to get my first driver's license in the 1980s; since then, the only thing I've needed for a new license is the old license. I'm not sure the need for ID was as restrictive in the 1970s as it is now--a lot of states didn't even put photos on the driver's license back then.

I can understand why the Barnes family hasn't taken a DNA test; in a way, it's kind of insulting to be asked to prove you are your own child's parent, when you know for a fact that you are. I wonder if they'll get tested now, just to set the matter at rest once and for all. Although from the sound of it, I have a feeling that John Barnes wants badly enough to find another family to claim, that he wouldn't trust the results of his father's DNA test unless the results are what he wants:

I'm disappointed," Barnes told the Daily News Thursday. "I believed that I belonged to another family. I still do."

Barnes convinced himself of the link to the Damman family after spending hours in the local library, five days a week, researching the case and his past.

From the sound of it, he's convinced himself that he's not a Barnes, and I don't know if anything would change his mind. I'm sorry for him (and it sounds like there's some long-term resentment going on). In the article, he says that he will always love Pamela Damman as a sister, and he hopes to keep in contact with her for life...yet he already HAS a sister that he could be having that kind of brother-sister relationship with. Just sad. I wonder if he's going through some kind of midlife crisis, and trying to build up a sense of importance, that he's not just some balding middle-aged guy who doesn't particularly get along with his family, but instead is a Man On a Mission For the Truth. Some guys buy a red sports car, others run-off with their high school girlfriend at their 30th reunion...he's on a mythical quest for something that's not there, like Don Quixote.

 

[Mouse]

Sorry to double-post:

This is a pretty good article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/us/19kidnap.html?ref=us

It mentions that John Barnes has an older brother, Richard Barnes, Jr. It doesn't say how much older he is, but if he has never had a reason to doubt that John is his brother (suspicious absence, then suddenly the "reappearance" of a slightly different-looking brother), I think that's pretty compelling.

The more I think about this, the more I question the original "snatched from outside a store, with the baby carriage and daughter found elsewhere" story. I'm starting to lean toward the theory that the mother caused Steven's death, and then hastily concocted a cover story. It would be easy to leave a stroller with one child in it a little ways away, go into a store for 10 minutes, and then come out and "notice" that your stroller isn't in front of the store where you supposedly left it. Who is there to say that Steven wasn't there in the first place? The baby's not going to say anything. Plus, one of the articles said that they don't discuss the case with Marilyn Damman any more, because the last time they did, a few years ago, she "flew into a rage." Which seems like an odd reaction. Dissolved into tears, yes...begged them to stop bringing it up because it was too painful, sure...but a rage? Kind of sounds like she was angry they brought it up, like maybe she's tired of hearing about it because she has something to hide. On the other hand, I think inappropriate emotions are one of the signs of dementia, so IF she's suffering something like that, that could explain the rage part.

 

[Trino]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/us/19kidnap.html?_r=1&ref=us

“This is all out of nowhere,” she said. “He’s always saying something, and now it’s this? Is he saying our dad is a kidnapper?”

JB has denied his heritage, his parentage, and his father's paternity and said he thought he was abducted. I feel very sorry for JB's father. It's time for JB to move on and accept his family.