Sometimes, the past can catch up to you in ways that you’ll never expect. This man just solved a missing person case by “looking for himself”.
Steve Carter, a 35 year-old software salesman who was adopted at the age of 4 from an orphanage in Honolulu, Hawaii, had an unexpected journey of self-discovery. After adoption, he had lived his life normally. He grew up, made friends, got an education, and eventually got married.
But all of that was about to change when he saw the news about Carlina White who only knew that she was actually abducted when she tried to look up files about her in a missing children’s database.
He told about the fateful day with CNN:
“I actually have CNN to thank for that. I was on a lunch break and one of your breaking news came through and it was the Carlina White story.”
After reading White’s story, Carter began to wonder about his own story since it was not hidden from him that he was adopted.
Carter suddenly felt the urge to entertain the hunch, no matter how farfetched it felt. Hoping to learn more about his past, he logged onto missingkids.com during his lunch time.
He typed in “Hawaii” and “34 years old” in the filters until he found an age-progression image that he thought looked like him. Age-progression photos are hypothetical images showing what a missing person, who was lost at a very young age, would look like if they were older. This helps investigators profile missing people even if the case was running for years.
Carter shared that his experience was a bit shocking, especially after seeing himself and realizing that people maybe looking for him until that day.
He then began asking a couple of friends if the picture looked anything like him. Eventually, he called his adoptive parents and showed them the picture. It was at that point where they decided to call the Honolulu Police Department.
After the test results came in, Steve Carter, or Marx Panama Moriarty Barnes, decided to contact his biological father and half-sister.
He shared the reunion with CNN:
“There were a lot of awkward pauses… It was a big announcement for the both of us. It’s a life changing moment, I’d say.”
He already had a hunch about his origins, though. Since his new birth certificate said that his father was native Hawaiian. But the thing is, Steve Carter was lacking a bit when it comes to native Hawaiian features.
When the news anchor asked him about how he felt like in his childhood years about his sense of belonging and identity. Carter said that he never felt that he was out of place. He knew even from way back that he was adopted but his parents loved him just the same. Even going as far as to say that they did a wonderful job on raising him.
But not everyone is as lucky as Carter and White. Thousands of children under the age of 18 go missing each year. And while many of them actually return home after running away, there are still hundreds of missing children that are a bit harder to track down.
Check out the video below and see how Steve Carter solved a missing person case in the most surreal way possible.
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