Speaker 1: Previously on Hello John Tale.
Speaker 2: She kicked me out and we went for two years.
Speaker 2: We didn't talk two years, not a word. I feel
Speaker 2: like he's a little bit jealous because I had our
Speaker 2: actual mom, and I'm jealous that he didn't have her.
Speaker 3: Since I started talking to Steve, he's made it clear
Speaker 3: he wanted to know who his father was. Losing the
Speaker 3: only father he had ever known made him waning to
Speaker 3: find out who gave him life. Finding his mom wasn't
Speaker 3: necessarily enough for Steve. I sensed he harbored resentment toward
Speaker 3: his biological mom, Sandy, forgiving him away, and that pushed
Speaker 3: Steve to want to find out who his birth father was.
Speaker 3: So he asked Sandy, He asked his newfound sister Amy,
Speaker 3: even asked me if I could do some digging. I
Speaker 3: started looking at his family tree. I'll remind you of
Speaker 3: what that tree looks like. Sandy was married to clips
Speaker 3: se Vegas and had Susie Savegas, her first daughter. She
Speaker 3: was the one that Franklin Floyd kidnapped. Then she had
Speaker 3: two daughters with Dennis Brandenburg. Remember this, Sandy and her
Speaker 3: girls thought he had died decades ago, but he was
Speaker 3: actually alive and well, the whole down time. Anyway, Sandy
Speaker 3: and Dennis had Alison and Amy. You already know Amy,
Speaker 3: the bus driver from Virginia. Alison lives in Oregon, but
Speaker 3: she and the family don't keep in touch. Sandy got
Speaker 3: pregnant Steve around the same time she was still with
Speaker 3: Dennis Brandenburgh. Meaning Steve's hunch and mine too, was that
Speaker 3: he was a Brandenburgh. That would make sense, but he
Speaker 3: had no proof. He was looking for something definitive. He
Speaker 3: hadn't expected to find someone who wanted answers as badly
Speaker 3: as he did another adoptee.
Speaker 1: Actually, I'm Andre, a carpenter. I am just turned fifty
Speaker 1: six on a farm on Wstness. They investigations are your
Speaker 1: private investigtor?
Speaker 3: Yes, oh honey, we can have fun. Oh yes, Tennessee.
Speaker 3: When she met Steve in twenty twenty one, she was
Speaker 3: on her own journey.
Speaker 1: I've known all my life that I was adopted from
Speaker 1: ever since I can remember, but did not even attempt
Speaker 1: to find my biological parents until twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: I did not want to disrespect my adopted parents because
Speaker 1: it would hurt them, even though they were encouraging.
Speaker 3: Once she started looking, Andrew learned about her birth story.
Speaker 3: Her mom got pregnant young and she wasn't married to
Speaker 3: her dad, so she was forced to give Andrew up
Speaker 3: for adoption.
Speaker 1: And her dad, Dennis Brandenburg is my father.
Speaker 3: Dennis Brandenburg is in Sandy's second husband, the professional gambler,
Speaker 3: and the guy Steve thought was probably his father. Once
Speaker 3: Andrey figured out that she was in Brandenburg, she started
Speaker 3: finding his other kids. That's how she connected with Steve.
Speaker 4: I found out I potentially had another sister through the
Speaker 4: Brandenburg side.
Speaker 3: They had a lot in common. Both were adopted, Both
Speaker 3: waited in till later in life to seek their birth parents,
Speaker 3: both figuring out where they fit into this world with
Speaker 3: all this new information. Andrew had grown up as an
Speaker 3: only child. She couldn't live one more minute not knowing
Speaker 3: her brother.
Speaker 1: Within forty eight hours, when I was on the road
Speaker 1: going to North Carolina, and as soon as he walked
Speaker 1: in the door, ooh, I knew it was him. I
Speaker 1: knew it was him, and I stood up and he
Speaker 1: knew it was me, and it.
Speaker 5: Was just like he's finally here.
Speaker 1: All the anticipation had come forth, and I feel like
Speaker 1: that he needed us.
Speaker 3: As much as we needed him us as in the
Speaker 3: other Brandenburgs. One of Dennis's daughters lives in Michigan and
Speaker 3: his name Michelle.
Speaker 6: I am the oldest one so far that we found,
Speaker 6: and I'm fifty six, live in Fowlerville, Michigan, and on
Speaker 6: a boarding kennel for pet's pep boarding kennel.
Speaker 3: Andrew is on a mission to find as many of
Speaker 3: her siblings as possible and round them up. So she
Speaker 3: called up Amy.
Speaker 2: She said, my name is Andrew. She said, I believe
Speaker 2: we may have the same father. Would I be willing
Speaker 2: to take a DNA test to see if we're related?
Speaker 5: Sure? Why not?
Speaker 7: Why?
Speaker 2: And I've been riding this wave of response.
Speaker 3: Andrew felt in her gut that she was a Brandyburg,
Speaker 3: but she didn't have no proof. But Amy was definitely
Speaker 3: his daughter. Andrew is kind of the captain here. She
Speaker 3: got both sisters, Amy and Michelle to do their DNA
Speaker 3: test from their home states, but she did hers from
Speaker 3: North Carolina with Steve.
Speaker 4: So she paid for everybody get a DNA test. Another sister,
Speaker 4: another lady on the Brandyburgh side, and.
Speaker 3: Her DNA tests can be expensive, somewhere between fifty dollars
Speaker 3: and a few hundred dollars Andrew wanted to pay. She
Speaker 3: worked several jobs, and I also was adopted into a
Speaker 3: family of means she could.
Speaker 1: Everybody went like that day or the next day, and
Speaker 1: we had to wait so much forever.
Speaker 3: While they waiting, Andrew and Steve got to know each
Speaker 3: other better. They didn't do anything fancy. They just went
Speaker 3: out to dinner talked a lot. After all, there was
Speaker 3: so much to catch up on between the supposed brother
Speaker 3: and sister. Everything was changing so fast, Andrew tried to
Speaker 3: soak it all in.
Speaker 1: We were supposed to be two nights and three days
Speaker 1: in North Carolina ended up being a week because we
Speaker 1: want to spend the time with Steve, kid to know him.
Speaker 3: After a few days the results came back. All four
Speaker 3: of them crossed their fingers in hope, and then I
Speaker 3: was the one that got.
Speaker 1: The first results. I called Michelle and I'm like, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna believe this. I said, we're all sisters, but
Speaker 1: Steve's not our brother.
Speaker 4: And they were all connected to brandon Bury except me.
Speaker 3: Steve was Sandy's son, but his dad was not the
Speaker 3: gamble Dennis Brandenburg.
Speaker 1: Our hearts broke.
Speaker 3: This new stone, the test ruled out the only man
Speaker 3: Sandy could remember being with around the time Steve was conceived,
Speaker 3: but the test didn't say who his dad was. Steve
Speaker 3: had reached a dead end, had insult injury. The DNA
Speaker 3: results also many wasn't related to Andrea, who had spent
Speaker 3: a whole week with him.
Speaker 1: We were crushed because he is such a wonderful, wonderful person.
Speaker 3: Steve was already wrestling with so much he wanted the
Speaker 3: certainty of knowing who he was related to on his
Speaker 3: dad's son. From talking to Steve, I could tell he
Speaker 3: resented Sandy forgiving him away, even though he knew it
Speaker 3: saved him from a lot of pain and it may
Speaker 3: have even saved his life. His father, however, was already
Speaker 3: out of the picture when Steve was given away. If
Speaker 3: Steve had been part of the Brandenburg clan joined with
Speaker 3: this group of women from three different mothers, maybe that
Speaker 3: would have been an easier family for him to fit in.
Speaker 3: But Steve was back to square one. He still didn't
Speaker 3: know who his birth father was, and now he had
Speaker 3: a choice to make. Andrea, Amy and Michelle were ready
Speaker 3: to welcome him into their family. Should he choose this
Speaker 3: family or keep looking for his biological father. My name
Speaker 3: is Todd Matthews and this is Hello John Doe. A sleuth,
Speaker 3: a family, and a serial killer. The story of a
Speaker 3: family torn apart by tragedy and my quest to bring
Speaker 3: them back together. Chapter nine, Finding his father. It's one
Speaker 3: thing to learn you've been adopted late in life. Steve
Speaker 3: is making sense of that. When he learned about Franklin
Speaker 3: Employe's destructive rampage through his family tree, he was discovering
Speaker 3: new relatives like his sister Susie Sevegas and his nephew
Speaker 3: Michael Hughes, but at the same time mourning their passing.
Speaker 3: Ever since he learned he was adopted in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 3: Steve has tried to understand his origin story still unanswered questions,
Speaker 3: and I can imagine it must feel like he's sinking
Speaker 3: in quick sin. He wants to be proud of who
Speaker 3: he is and stand tall, but how can he when
Speaker 3: there are so many unanswered questions? He was in the
Speaker 3: fog through my years. In this work, I've seen myself
Speaker 3: as a hailer. I identified the unclaimed dead and brought
Speaker 3: them back to their families who had been grieving their
Speaker 3: loss for years. I brought them closure. But there's a
Speaker 3: big difference between Steve's story and the other cases I've worked.
Speaker 3: Steve was alive, and because of how unique this whole
Speaker 3: story really is, I found myself in an unfamiliar place.
Speaker 3: I can't heal Steve. I can't fix what Franklin Floyd did.
Speaker 3: In a lot of ways, I'm woefully unequipped. But Andrea,
Speaker 3: she reached step in a way I never could. In
Speaker 3: some ways, only other people who are lost in the
Speaker 3: same way can guide you. Andrea, like Steve, was sheepish
Speaker 3: about asking her adoptive parents about her birth for a
Speaker 3: long time. Andrew didn't want to end anyone by speaking up.
Speaker 1: I just knew, you know, as a mall myself, that
Speaker 1: it would probably hurt them, so I just let it go.
Speaker 1: He might have been like me, you feel like that
Speaker 1: these two people that raised you.
Speaker 5: And you hung the moon for.
Speaker 1: That you were going to hurt them. You were going
Speaker 1: to hurt their hearts. And I think that's what Steve
Speaker 1: and I have in common, that we don't like to
Speaker 1: hurt people's hearts. And I think he kind of felt
Speaker 1: like I did that it was disrespected. Now because you know,
Speaker 1: in the South. You're raised to respect your parents, and
Speaker 1: I think he just thought, oh, I'll save it for
Speaker 1: another day, and he waited thirty years, twenty years.
Speaker 3: But waiting had consequences. Andrew's biological parents died before she
Speaker 3: even went looking for him. Dennis Brandon Burg died in
Speaker 3: twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, by the time I got there, you know, late
Speaker 1: to the dads. By the time I got there, they
Speaker 1: were already gone.
Speaker 3: Andrew and Steve shared this profound thing in common. They're
Speaker 3: both looking for answers about their adoption later in life.
Speaker 3: But there's an important difference too, Andrew and you. She
Speaker 3: was adopted early, but Steve didn't. That makes him what
Speaker 3: experts call a late discovery adoptee. Anyone who finds out
Speaker 3: they were adopted later than three years old found out late.
Speaker 3: That makes Steve a late discoverer. He only found out
Speaker 3: in his teens. Experts say discovering your adoption later in
Speaker 3: life can shatter your sense of who you are. Think
Speaker 3: of it this way. If you grew up always knowing
Speaker 3: and feel like your parents have always been straight with you,
Speaker 3: that's one thing. But finding out on the verge of adulthood,
Speaker 3: it can make you question your whole damn childhood, and
Speaker 3: if you only start dealing with the fact you're adopted
Speaker 3: in middle age, it can be overwhelming to your sense
Speaker 3: of identity. Andrew could since that was happening to Steve,
Speaker 3: so despite the fact they didn't have the same father,
Speaker 3: she invited him into her new family.
Speaker 1: I said, now here's the situation. I said. He is
Speaker 1: Alison and Amy's brother. He is their half brother, but
Speaker 1: he's our stepbrother because our dad was still married to
Speaker 1: Sandy at the time that Steve was born. So in
Speaker 1: my eyes, there is no step no hives, no nothing.
Speaker 1: He's our brother. And we agreed on that.
Speaker 3: Andrea saw beyond blood connections and Steve. She saw a
Speaker 3: man with a quiet demeanor but a big heart, someone
Speaker 3: had don anything for his kids or his girlfriend Jeanette's
Speaker 3: kids too.
Speaker 1: I love him to death. I don't see any difference.
Speaker 1: And I guess I could say that because I was
Speaker 1: adopted and Steve was adopted, so he should be able
Speaker 1: to understand that. And he's got you know, Janette's kids
Speaker 1: are in his house and he loves them like they
Speaker 1: were his own.
Speaker 3: Someone trecking through what may be the most challenging years
Speaker 3: of his life, and she wanted to help.
Speaker 1: He wants those answers. We're going to do everything we
Speaker 1: can and as a family to help him get those answers.
Speaker 3: If there's something this whole family has in common, it's
Speaker 3: that they're all looking for answers. Think about it. Amy
Speaker 3: certainly didn't know she had more sisters. Andre didn't know
Speaker 3: her birth parents. Steve didn't know his whole adoption story
Speaker 3: until he was almost fifty. They each became detectives on
Speaker 3: their own, talking to one another trying to figure out
Speaker 3: who fit were. Over the summer of twenty twenty three,
Speaker 3: Steve's sister started making plans to see one another, and
Speaker 3: they wanted Steve to come too. They considered him a
Speaker 3: Brandenburg no matter what his DNA said.
Speaker 1: Amy messaged me and she's like, hey, what do you
Speaker 1: do in July tenth through the sixteenth? And I said
Speaker 1: nothing that I know of why? And she said, I
Speaker 1: think we're going to come for a visit. I said, huh, amazing,
Speaker 1: because I thought it's the perfect time for all of
Speaker 1: us to finally get together.
Speaker 2: I'm on summer break because I'm a school bus driver.
Speaker 2: I told everybody I'm gone and we just.
Speaker 3: Left, and Andrea was on board too, so I thought
Speaker 3: this is.
Speaker 1: The perfect time. My birthday's the tenth, so I said
Speaker 1: that'd be my birthday. Presis to bout seven.
Speaker 3: Andrew offered her own place in Tennessee and started counting
Speaker 3: down the days until she would be reunited with these
Speaker 3: long lost siblings, and she invited me too. I think
Speaker 3: it's because I'd ask so many questions about their family,
Speaker 3: they started considering me part of it, and I felt
Speaker 3: like family too. I've had this feeling before in other
Speaker 3: cases at work. I like to leave a little piece
Speaker 3: of myself with the family and take some of them
Speaker 3: with me. But this time I wonder if I got
Speaker 3: in too date. I want it so badly for Stived
Speaker 3: to get answers, I might have pushed him too hard,
Speaker 3: too fast.
Speaker 7: Are you staking any worse? Good?
Speaker 5: I'm good.
Speaker 2: I'm good.
Speaker 3: It's easy to find. On an incredibly hot day in July,
Speaker 3: we all descend on Andrew's home in Dyersburg. It's a
Speaker 3: beautiful property, a ranch style house on a big piece
Speaker 3: of land, and it was incredibly green. That's the way
Speaker 3: Tennessee is green all over. We're not going to christ
Speaker 3: your party that.
Speaker 1: Oh no, you're part of the party.
Speaker 3: She said so herself. I was part of the party.
Speaker 3: That was a good feeling. I felt a little awkward
Speaker 3: at first at someone else's reunion, but they really seemed
Speaker 3: to embrace me. I guess that's where I fit into
Speaker 3: this family. Before all of this, I had thirty years experience,
Speaker 3: first as as cybersluth and then as a contractor for
Speaker 3: the Department of Justice, doing everything I could to help
Speaker 3: reunite the missing in the dead. I know Steve can
Speaker 3: be reserved, so I thought I could help him get
Speaker 3: the answers he was looking for. I've said this before.
Speaker 3: This family don't always talk to each other. I became
Speaker 3: an intermediary, relating little bits of information to the different
Speaker 3: family members who couldn't or wouldn't ask for themselves. Amy
Speaker 3: told me that even after I interviewed Sandy, they didn't
Speaker 3: really talk about it.
Speaker 1: I said, well, how'd your little session with Todd go?
Speaker 2: She said, it went well, you went really well.
Speaker 1: I said, what would y'all talk about? She said, just
Speaker 1: he asked some questions and I answered, and I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: you want to further.
Speaker 3: Talk to each other?
Speaker 5: Every day?
Speaker 3: I know, but not about what you need.
Speaker 6: To talk because she won't.
Speaker 1: I guess she feels more comfortable talking to his stranger.
Speaker 3: Maybe it is, and maybe you just need somebody that.
Speaker 1: A million times.
Speaker 2: We don't give a shit.
Speaker 1: It's your past.
Speaker 3: Look, I ain't a reporter. I never promised to keep
Speaker 3: sources at arm's length or not to fill in with
Speaker 3: the people I interview. I feel like I have the
Speaker 3: skills to help people find answers, and I'll be honest.
Speaker 3: I really like Steve's family a lot. I can relate
Speaker 3: to them. We all share the same sense of humor
Speaker 3: and culture. I guess it's a Southern thing.
Speaker 1: Because Steve's story kind of started and has grown legs
Speaker 1: every which I mean.
Speaker 3: All of you colorful people to start popping up definitely, well,
Speaker 3: I mean I found you, you're not. This is a
Speaker 3: whole family event now at.
Speaker 1: This point, it's a little fun week.
Speaker 3: I bet it. You've been at her all way.
Speaker 5: Ye yes, since we got it.
Speaker 1: We pulled in with Monday night on my birthday.
Speaker 3: There was only one person missing, Phillip.
Speaker 1: Steveh and Patterson. You should have had your butt here.
Speaker 3: Steve had plans to be there. We texted a lot
Speaker 3: in the weeks before the reunion, he was going to come,
Speaker 3: but his excitement started to dwindle. He said he couldn't
Speaker 3: get time off work in North Carolina.
Speaker 1: Because your sisters love you. We love spending time with you.
Speaker 1: The time that I got with him personally myself changed
Speaker 1: my life because he was the beginning.
Speaker 3: That's why I felt like I have to come for it,
Speaker 3: you know, I have to. I want to try to
Speaker 3: take something.
Speaker 2: Back to him.
Speaker 3: I figured if I was there, I could share what
Speaker 3: I've learned with him when he was ready to hear it.
Speaker 3: That weekend, I spent time with his family, like Amy,
Speaker 3: who came with her husband Mike Winkles.
Speaker 2: I don't think I'm going to free anything about this true.
Speaker 2: I mean it has been. It's been awesome, just a
Speaker 2: regular family cookout, laughing, joking, having a good time.
Speaker 3: By the time I showed up, the sisters had been
Speaker 3: together for a few days.
Speaker 1: We're like three peas in a pod. It doesn't seem
Speaker 1: like we've missed fifty years of each other together, but
Speaker 1: we're trying to cram it all in this week.
Speaker 3: This was the first time they were all in the
Speaker 3: same place together, and they appeared to be having the
Speaker 3: time of their lives.
Speaker 2: Oh, we're all crazy as hell. If we want to
Speaker 2: know something, we're gonna find out, and all three of
Speaker 2: us are like that.
Speaker 3: Watching them is like watching the litter of puppies play.
Speaker 3: These sisters enjoyed the best part of siblinghood. No fighting
Speaker 3: over clothes or parent's attention, just having a really close
Speaker 3: friend who loves you, even if she's just getting to
Speaker 3: know you. There were three of them that weekend, all
Speaker 3: Dennis Brandy Bird's kids. Andrea did adopt, he w s
Speaker 3: and Dyersburg, Amy the bus driver who grew up with Sandy,
Speaker 3: and Michelle, who grew up with a single mom in Michigan,
Speaker 3: who was shot to see Amy for the first time.
Speaker 6: When I saw her walk in, I was like, dang, yeah,
Speaker 6: that's definitely a Brandenburg.
Speaker 3: Amy and Michelle are practically identical, same laugh, same facial shape,
Speaker 3: same brown hair, they both wearing a low ponytail. But
Speaker 3: it's not just looks.
Speaker 6: Once I met the Brandenburg, it's like, oh my god,
Speaker 6: this is why I talk real loud, this is why
Speaker 6: I get super excited, this is why.
Speaker 5: I think the way I do it.
Speaker 1: It's like we're all thinking on the same wave pattern,
Speaker 1: and it's amazing. I would have argued that environmental factors
Speaker 1: were a heavier weight on somebody other than genetics until
Speaker 1: this last two years.
Speaker 3: Like close friends getting together after a long time, the
Speaker 3: Brandenburgh spent a lot of time shooting a shit and drinking.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my husband is heavy, head to hell.
Speaker 3: That's a good thing, right. They even shared with me
Speaker 3: the gifted Steve some Jack Daniels, but he wasn't there,
Speaker 3: so I got some of that.
Speaker 7: Don't let my husband think you make it good. You
Speaker 7: know how to how to do it. You care now, Lock.
Speaker 3: The weekend was very lighthearted, lots of laughter, lots of drinking,
Speaker 3: teasing and poking fun, but there's no doubt there was
Speaker 3: a serious part of it. They all wanted to know
Speaker 3: about the thread that ran through each of them. Dennis Brandenburgh. Michelle,
Speaker 3: the sister from Michigan, was the only one to know him.
Speaker 3: Meaning of all the people in Steve's orbit, she has
Speaker 3: and you, Dennis.
Speaker 5: I was with my dad until I was two or three.
Speaker 6: Two They were married for two and he was maybe
Speaker 6: around for part of another year.
Speaker 5: That was it.
Speaker 6: So all when I was growing up, I wanted to
Speaker 6: know my dad and My mom never talked bad about him.
Speaker 5: She just said he wasn't responsible and please, wait, two,
Speaker 5: you're older.
Speaker 6: That's all because I didn't feel like to fit in
Speaker 6: on my mom's side of the family. It just seemed
Speaker 6: like I thought differently, I felt differently about things, and
Speaker 6: I just felt like there was a hole.
Speaker 5: So that's probably what he's feeling.
Speaker 3: She's talking about.
Speaker 2: Steve.
Speaker 3: There, she finally met Dennis when she was a grown up.
Speaker 5: I met him when I was twenty three.
Speaker 6: I wanted to find him, so I knew him from
Speaker 6: the time I was twenty three till I was what
Speaker 6: fifty three fifty four?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so even though she wasn't raised by him, she
Speaker 3: at least knew the guy.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they're little jealous. I would think they would be.
Speaker 6: I would be just kind of bummed that they didn't
Speaker 6: get that a little bit of that experience.
Speaker 3: Amy didn't get any of this experience. Remember all of this,
Speaker 3: She grew up thinking her dad died before she was born.
Speaker 2: It made me start going, what was he?
Speaker 5: What was for dad?
Speaker 3: Like Dennis died in twenty nineteen, he'd been alive the
Speaker 3: whole damn time. Steve showed her as a bitch Steve
Speaker 3: brought her a piece of information that she didn't know
Speaker 3: they were working together.
Speaker 2: And then, like I said, I was hurt when I
Speaker 2: found out that he was alive all that time. And
Speaker 2: Michelle says that, you know, he was mean, he was
Speaker 2: a drinker, he was a lady's man. He didn't want
Speaker 2: to be tied down. But the fact that I didn't
Speaker 2: get to see for myself or talk to him or something,
Speaker 2: I'm a little jealous, but it's not a mean jealousy.
Speaker 2: It's like, so when she talks about him, I listened
Speaker 2: a little bit closer.
Speaker 3: There was something about the weekend that I felt like
Speaker 3: breaking things down and building them back up again. This
Speaker 3: weekend was about these sisters, now all grown up with
Speaker 3: kids and grandkids of their own, choosing their own family.
Speaker 3: For Andrea, that meant choosing Steve and wanting him to
Speaker 3: know it.
Speaker 1: It took me fifty three years, fifty four years to
Speaker 1: know what that missing part of me was. It's given
Speaker 1: me so much enjoyment, calmed my heart down.
Speaker 3: Even Michelle, who had never even heard of Stephen, wanted
Speaker 3: him in this family.
Speaker 6: You're missing your sisters, Stephen, You're missing your sisters.
Speaker 5: I don't care who your dad is.
Speaker 6: You're our brother, You're Brandenburg, You're born of Brandenberg, You're Brandenburg.
Speaker 5: End of the story.
Speaker 6: Quit hiding, Come play with us, come hang out.
Speaker 5: We're all family.
Speaker 3: The brandon Burg sisters wanted embrace Steve with open arms.
Speaker 3: They wanted him to jump into the d bend with them, drinking,
Speaker 3: hanging out and making up for lost time. Whatever the
Speaker 3: reason he had for not being there. The women thought,
Speaker 3: you know, what the hell, let's just FaceTime him, tell
Speaker 3: him he should have been here.
Speaker 7: Oh you do, I got just his way a woman.
Speaker 7: You got got crapy on my ball for you, and
Speaker 7: you didn't show off. Hey I drink it instead. You
Speaker 7: just got off work. You're first supposed to be in Tennessee.
Speaker 3: Over FaceTime, Steve seemed a little overwhelmed, but happy taking
Speaker 3: the whole scene in.
Speaker 7: There's your sister, Michelle. Hi boy, how are you good?
Speaker 7: We miss you? You look good.
Speaker 3: I know what you did too.
Speaker 7: I said, you got a bunch of sisters, Whether you like.
Speaker 5: It or not.
Speaker 7: You the baby, we get to spoil you.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: I want Steve to have this so much, to know
Speaker 3: who his people were. I wanted to be a matchmaker,
Speaker 3: not just for the dead, but for the living. Steve
Speaker 3: was a lie. He could actually embrace the family. Never
Speaker 3: knew that doesn't usually happen in my line of work.
Speaker 3: Maybe the jack and coke blurred my judgment, or maybe
Speaker 3: I just got carried away by the excitement of it all.
Speaker 3: At some point during the weekend, the girls got another idea,
Speaker 3: so they made plan to surprise Steve on his home turf.
Speaker 3: And I was cautiously optimistic, but I was running ahead
Speaker 3: of Steve. Usually that's a good thing. I could open
Speaker 3: doors for him that were hard for him to open
Speaker 3: by himself. Then he could catch up and walk through.
Speaker 3: But what if he didn't want to walk through those
Speaker 3: doors just yet? As much as he enjoyed talking to
Speaker 3: the Brandon Burr sisters, what if he still needed to
Speaker 3: forge on and find his birth father. And what if
Speaker 3: he needed more time to come to peace with Sandy.
Speaker 3: That's next time. On the finale of Hello John Doe.
Speaker 1: It was just started out really good.
Speaker 2: Well, it did not start out really good because I
Speaker 2: said just ripped the banded off in brought her in
Speaker 2: the roof, and some people were mad at me because
Speaker 2: I did it that way.
Speaker 1: He did not want to meet us and it was
Speaker 1: forced on him.
Speaker 5: Hello.
Speaker 3: John Doe is and original productions by Revelations Entertainment in
Speaker 3: association with First and Last Productions from Revelations. Our executive
Speaker 3: producers are Morgan Freeman and James Younger from First and Last.
Speaker 3: Lindsay Moreno is the executive producer. Our producing partner is
Speaker 3: Neo on Hum Media. It was written and produced by
Speaker 3: Kate Mishkin. Our editor is Katherine Saint Louis. She is
Speaker 3: also nio on Home Media's executive editor. Our executive producer
Speaker 3: is Sharah Morris. Our development producer is Ian Lindsay. Our
Speaker 3: associate producer is Rufaro Faith Maserua. Sound design and mixing
Speaker 3: by Scott Summerville. Theme and original music composed by Jesse Pearlstein.
Speaker 3: Additional music came from Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions.
Speaker 3: Vindall Faulton is our fact checker. Our production manager is
Speaker 3: Samantha Allison from my Heart Media. Dylan Fagan as our
Speaker 3: executive producer. Special thanks to Adelia Ruben at Nion Hum
Speaker 3: and Carrie Lieberman and Will Pearson at iHeartMedia. Special thanks
Speaker 3: to Ben Odo, I'm Todd Matthews. You can learn more
Speaker 3: about name us at NamUs dot com. The number for
Speaker 3: the National Center for Missing Exploited Children's Call Center is
Speaker 3: one eight hundred the loss that's one eight hundred eight
Speaker 3: four three five six seven eight. The National Sexual Assault
Speaker 3: Hotline from the Rate Abuse and Incest National Network is
Speaker 3: one eight hundred six five six four six seven three. Okay, guys,
Speaker 3: this is the end of the show. If you didn't
Speaker 3: like it, don't do anything. But if you did like it,
Speaker 3: you make sure that you rate and review the show.
Speaker 3: It helps more people to find it and hear this
Speaker 3: wonderful story. Thanks again for listening.