Back From Afghanistan In A Box
Some of the periods of separation went on for years without either party knowing what would happen. You'll be amazed by these tales of family reunions. They give us hope that even the darkest moments in life can be overcome.
As you can see, the box is chirpier than the headline might suggest. U.S.
Missing, Believed Murdered
Soldier Joshua Carr's return from Afghanistan was marked by delivering himself in a birthday box to his 3-year-old daughter.
Imagine believing that your son had been killed by serial killer John Wayne Gacy for 41 years. That's what happened to Robert Hutton's family until he was discovered alive and well in California.
Bizarre Discovery
Richard Lorenc was adopted as a child. He spent years trying to track down his birth mother and when he finally did, she turned out to be a bearded lady in a circus sideshow!
The Whole Family
Bart and Brenda fell in love at 16, and she got pregnant. Their parents went mad, forced them to split up and to have their son adopted. Then they found each other online 26 years later, and a little later Brenda found their son.
Out Of The Blue
Now they're married!
Captain Hyrun Bronson returned to his family after serving in Afghanistan by emerging from the water in full dive gear while his family was on vacation. They had no idea he was coming.
Escaped Prisoner
Tanya Kach was kidnapped and imprisoned by Thomas Hose for nearly a decade. She finally escaped and was reunited with her family.
More Than 70 Years
Hose was sentenced to 5 to 15 years in jail.
Irene Adkins and Terry Spriggs are brother and sister. Irene was abandoned by her parents. She hadn't set eyes on her younger brother until Terry tracked her down.
Life-Sized G.I. Joe
He was 73.
Matthew Windish wanted to surprise his parents after a tour of duty in Korea, so he had his friends wrap up him as a life-sized G.I. Joe doll and deliver him to their house.
Mexican Miracle
Thankfully, they unwrapped him straight away rather than leaving him until Christmas.
Corrine McCallister was a top student in Wisconsin and then in 2004, she disappeared. She'd been drugged and kidnapped by her boyfriend and taken to Mexico.
The Long Kiss Goodbye
She wouldn't escape his clutches and return to her family until 2014.
Boris Kazlov married Anna and then 3 days later was sent to the front with the Red Army. While he was away, Anna and her family were exiled to Siberia.
Stolen At Birth
They did not see each other again until a chance meeting on the street 60 years later.
Carlina White was stolen from a hospital when she was only 19 days old. Yet, somehow she knew the family who raised her were not quite right.
Gatecrashing Graduation
She tracked down her real parents 23 years later and Anne Pettaway, the kidnapper, was jailed for 12 years.
Ashley L. Starkey's graduation was extra surprising when her husband returned from his duties in the navy to surprise her on stage.
Man's Best Friend Goes AWOL
Thank goodness she passed.
Michael Neary's dog ran away. So he bought another from the same litter because he missed it so much. Then the original turned up 5 years later at an animal shelter.
Presumed Dead
Now he has two dogs instead of one.
This is really unusual. Natasha Ryan ran away from home. Her parents didn't know. The police arrested a man for her murder.
Super Santa
He confessed. He was on trial when she emerged again. She'd been hiding at her boyfriend's house for 5 years since she was 14.
Travis Ruggerio served in Afghanistan and came home, unexpectedly, for Christmas. To surprise his mom, Leslie, he disguised himself as Santa and came to her work at Ocean County Medical Center.
Facebook Found Him
Avril Grube saw her son leave with his father to go to the zoo. His father took him to Budapest instead.
Dances With Wolves
She wouldn't see him again for 27 years until her sister found her son on Facebook.
Luke Sharmbrook is autistic. So when he went missing in the wilderness, it was a scary time for his parents.
Everybody Needs Good Neighbors
He survived 4 days and 4 nights and was found suffering from dehydration, exhaustion, and hypothermia, but he recovered just fine.
Stephen Goosney and Tommy Larkin are brothers. They were separated at a young age and adopted. Then they decided to look for each other in adult life.
Walled Up
It turned out that they had been living next door to each other for the past two years!
Gregory Jean's family thought he'd run away. In reality, his father and stepmother had walled him up in their home.
Pure Accident
They kept him there for four years before he was discovered and freed to rejoin the rest of his family.
Klaus Mueller and Peter Beschorner are half brothers. Strangely, they only found each other because they were both trying to trace their father's life history. Neither knew of the other until staff at the International Tracing Service realized that they had a father in common.
Triumph Over Terrorists
Peter was 67 and Klaus 76 when they met for the first time.
Amina Ali Nkeki was kidnapped by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram at her home in Nigeria. She managed to escape two years later to be reunited with her very relieved parents.
Truly Identical
Jim Lewis and Jim Springer are twins. They were adopted by different parents as children. Then they found each other 39 years later and discovered that they lived near-identical lives.
Addiction Reunion
Their dogs and sons even had the same names.
Xiao Yun left home at 14. She came home at 24. Where had she been for 10 years? In an Internet cafe playing computer games.
Not So Harry Potter
Her family had thought she was dead. Now they know better.
Danielle Cramer was abducted by Adam Gault and imprisoned in a cupboard for more than a year. Police found her and made sure she got home to her family.
Social Security Surprise
Julian Hernandez discovered he was missing when he found his father had given him a fake social security number. His school helped him track down the rest of his family, 13 years after his father had run away with him.
