Man Who Was Abandoned As An Infant 33 Years Ago At London’s Gatwick Airport Tracks Down His Birth Parents
A man who was abandoned as an infant at London’s Gatwick airport 33 years ago has found his biological parents, Yahoo News UK reports.
Back in 1986, British newspapers gave the nickname “Gatwick Gary” to the little infant who had been found, apparently having been abandoned, at the busy London airport.
On April 10, 1986, an off-duty shop worker at the airport found a little baby, estimated at the time to be about 10-days-old, wrapped in blankets and left abandoned in a women’s restroom, according to The Metro. The press gave him the nickname “Gatwick Gary” after the airport’s mascot, a cute teddy bear.
Police made no arrests in the infant’s abandonment and indeed had no suspects and no motive.
The baby was placed into foster care and eventually adopted into a family with three children of their own. He is now known as Steve Hydes and is a healthy and well-adjusted 33-year-old man with children of his own.
Hydes never lost sight of his origin, having maintained scrapbooks filled with photographs and newspaper clippings from the time of his abandonment. And now that his oldest child is of an age where she wants to know more about her family and its history, Hydes decided that now is the time to try to figure out what he can about his biological family.
Gary Gatwick https://t.co/vyO2WuVYxI
— Becky Barnes (@BeckyBarnesB) May 13, 2019
Fortunately for Gary, he now has some tools at his disposal that weren’t available to him even a decade ago. Namely, commercial DNA testing is advanced enough that even regular people, not just police and investigative agencies, can find their familial matches.
Man abandoned in Gatwick Airport toilet 33 years ago finally finds his parents https://t.co/6xRcbisLp2
— Metro (@MetroUK) May 13, 2019
With the help of a couple of professional genealogists, Hydes set about to find out whatever he could about his biological family. And in a Facebook post from Saturday, Hydes wrote that his search was successful.
“After 15 years of searching I am happy to confirm that with the very hard work of Genetic Genealogists, CeCe Moore and Helen Riding we have been able to trace and confirm my birth family.”
Specifically, he was able to find his biological father and four siblings, none of whom knew of his existence. He was also able to identify his biological mother, who unfortunately passed away years ago. Unfortunately for Hydes, that means that he won’t be able to ask her why she abandoned him.
Due to the sensitive nature of his story, however, Hydes didn’t publicly reveal the names of his new family members.
Hydes is clear that he bears no ill will toward his birth family, and that he’s not angry about what happened.
