Real Names: William, Wanda, Shannon, Keith and Kenneth Brown
Case: Lost Siblings
Location: Flint, Michigan
Date: December 22, 1964
Case[]
Details: On the night of December 22, 1964, young mother Faith Marie went on a joyride outside of Flint, Michigan with two friends when the car went over an embankment and crashed; she was killed along with the other passenger. She was just twenty-six at the time; in addition to her parents and four brothers, she left behind seven children, four sons and three daughters, under the age of ten. Two divorces and the fatal car crash scattered them to five different families.
In 1992, April Kersjes, one of the daughters, was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, a hereditary disease. Concerned about the health of her children, she began her search for her birth family. She knew that her birth name was Michelle Brown and that she was born on September 18, 1961. When at the records office, she noticed that she had a brother named Michael. However, she was not allowed to look at the other records; strict regulations govern adoption records. She petitioned the court for access to them. A few days later, she received a letter that said she had four brothers and two sisters. However, the key details to find them were omitted.
Mike Galloway, April's friend Deb's husband, had also been adopted. He was especially curious about April's investigation. They discovered that both of their birth last names were Brown. The records showed that one of April's brothers was born in Owasso in 1960; Mike was also born there that year. At first, they assumed it was a coincidence.
The next day, Mike told April about how his adoptive parents had told him that his birth sister's name was Michelle. At that point, they realized that they had to be siblings. They began searching for information about Faith. They discovered that at sixteen, she had dropped out of high school to be married. By the age of twenty, she already had four children, including twin boys. When she divorced her husband, she lost custody of them. Her first husband believed that another man had fathered the twins.
April and Mike discovered that their father was another man named Dennis who was twenty-five years older than Faith. In 1962, Michigan social services took them away. Three months later, Dennis and Faith had another daughter, Shannon. After Faith died, she was also put up for adoption.
April and Mike are now searching for their five other siblings: William, Wanda, Shannon, Keith, and Kenneth.
The Brown children reunited
Extra Notes: This case first aired on the January 12, 1994 episode.
Results: Solved. On the night of the broadcast, four of the siblings were watching. Within a few hours, all five had called the telecenter and talked to April and Mike. William, Shannon, and Wanda were the first to be reunited with them. Kenneth and Keith arrived soon after and the Brown children were finally together again.
The reunion was one of the largest hosted by Unsolved Mysteries with thirty-three family members present. Sadly, Kenneth passed away shortly after on May 3, 1994. Also, Mike passed away on October 17, 2012.
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