She'd been missing for five decades, making hers one of the oldest missing person cases in the US. Yet every year for 50 years her family gathered around the table to commemorate the day she was born, blowing out candles, cutting the cake and releasing white balloons. The heartbroken Highsmith family held on to the belief that their missing daughter and sister was out there, somewhere – little knowing that “somewhere” was just 15 minutes away. In a remarkable turn of events, the Highsmiths of Fort Worth, Texas, recently discovered that the baby who was stolen from them in 1971 was living in the same area. And the moment Melissa Highsmith (53), who was snatched by her babysitter, reunited with them would melt even the hardest of hearts.

Source: New York Times May 22, 2023 13:54 UTC