WEBVTT - CHAPTER TWO: An Unusual Adoption 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:02.160 Previously on Hello John Doe. 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:07.240 So we had the missing person case and name of 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:08.840 says phill at Brandenburg. 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:11.520 Nobody knew if this missing infant was a live or dead. 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:15.480 The FBI had no paperwork on him, but I didn't 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:19.119 want to give up on looking for him. For fifteen years, 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:22.840 I continue my work investigating missing and unidentified people with 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:25.959 the Department of Justice, but I always wondered about the 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:30.160 fate of those missing voice until one day in twenty nineteen, 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:33.240 a man called me claiming that he was actually one 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:37.599 of them. 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:37.560 And I told him I slept in our conversation. I said, 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:39.000 you don't have to believe this. I said, I don't 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:43.080 blame you if you don't believe it, because this sounds crazy. 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:45.920 And I started explaining. He took the time to listen. 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:48.440 He said he was a missing infant. 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:51.159 But now had to figure out if this was actually true, 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:54.560 and if so, how on earth had he gotten away 0:00:54.560 --> 0:01:02.040 from a serial killer. After that phone call in twenty nineteen, 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:04.479 I had to prove that this man was actually who 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:07.160 he said he was. I have my work cut out 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:09.720 for me. The man who'd called went by the name 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:12.720 Steve Patterson, and it grown up in Charyble, North Carolina, 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:16.080 not so far away from me. But the person he 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:18.520 thought he was, the guy with the profile on the 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:22.560 DOE network, that was Philip Stephen Brandenburgh. He had last 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:26.200 been seen in Texas, not North Carolina. Could these two 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:28.640 be one and the same. I hoped in my heart 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:32.679 he was, but there's good reason to be skeptical. I 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:35.680 called up my friend Mike Nance, my coworker from NAMOS, 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:38.840 that's the national database run by the federal government. I 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:41.679 asked Mike to put step into NAMOS because it might 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:44.520 help match him with the person that he thought he was. 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:49.680 Throughout my tenure with NAMOS that we've had similar situations where, 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:54.000 for whatever reason, someone has contacted NamUs as an adult, 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:58.800 believing that they are a missing child from some agency, 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:03.040 some jurisdiction. So I don't know why if they believe that. 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:07.160 I totally get that those of us in this business 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:09.760 have all hit dead ends, or rather we've hit the 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:13.640 wrong ends. We're all chasing hope that sometimes gets us nowhere. 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:16.640 You exam a body that ends up being the wrong person. 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.760 Someone vanishes and has never found Disk on the phone 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.000 who said he was a Brandenburg could have been the 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:26.679 same type of situation. He might be a liar who knows, 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:28.680 or maybe he had it all wrong and he was 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:32.040 another missing person, not the Brandenburg infant that I thought. 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:35.240 I've been exposed to my fair share of heartbreaking this 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:38.440 line of work, but you know what, I've also been 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:42.160 in situations where hope one out where the impossible happened, 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:45.160 even though it had no business going that way. So 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:48.640 I chose to focus on what seems unbelievable but possible. 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:51.799 For twenty years, I've been wondering if the Brandenburg infant 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:54.320 was alive or dead. Mike and I could wonder all 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:56.799 we wanted, but nothing would be more final than a 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:02.200 DNA test, and Steve was down to take it. Steve, 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:04.400 the guy who claimed you was still at Brandenburg, was 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:06.400 a little surprised at where he had to go for 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:07.120 the DNA. 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:11.200 Swap, the Cherito Police Department, of all places. 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:13.680 I mean, it's not every day goes to hang out 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:14.959 at the local police department. 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:18.160 It was kind of funny because the guy that gave 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:20.240 it to me is like, this is the first time 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:24.560 I've ever done this. I'm like same here, I said, 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:27.120 I guess we're both gon be the first time and 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:29.040 gave a DNA test and the first time I've ever 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:34.960 taken one. We laughed about it. He just swapped it 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:36.680 around in my mouth and put it in this little pack. 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:38.280 I think he said it was going to send it 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:38.880 to Texas. 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:42.640 Yeah, the University of North Texas processed it. That's where 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.040 NAMES was located at the time. It's where all the 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:49.440 DNA went. We all waited several months, seemed like years. 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.160 Steve and I had all these phone conversations around that time. 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:55.960 They were used the kind of short Steve wasn't a 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:58.960 big talker like me. I was introducing him to tools 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:02.160 like ancestor dot Com, showing him what all was possible. 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:10.680 I didn't really know it then, but Steve had taking 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:13.360 a liking to me. I think it had something to 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:15.280 do with the fact that I'd taken the time to 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:19.120 search for the missing Brandenburg infant for years. If you 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:21.240 ask me, I think Steve has always had a feeling 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:25.920 of not being wanting. He felt like he'd been thrown away. Well, 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:28.720 we waited for the DNA tests come back. It dawned 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:31.440 on me that if this guy wasn't Philip Brandenburg, I'd 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:34.680 be devastating. But I already made up my mind that 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:37.560 even if he wasn't, I still wanted to help this guy, 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:42.080 whoever the hell he was always taking any astray anyway. 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:46.800 Then one day my nance gave me the definitive phone call. 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:51.239 We were able to make the familial identification and determined 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:53.640 that yes, this is Philip Brandenburgh. 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:59.480 Steve Patterson was Philip Stephen Brandenburg, this once non existent 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:00.920 person somehow alive. 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:02.560 I couldn't believe it. 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:05.599 He's really a real person and he was really born. 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:09.800 And it was just such an amazing feeling. Just so 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:12.960 many different dynamics that go into these cases, and you 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:15.160 just wonder what's going to be the next chapter and 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:17.799 this incredible story of this family. 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:20.919 I'd waited almost twenty years for him to find my 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:24.839 message in a bottle. Even Mike, the season detective that 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:26.320 he is, was shocked. 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:29.359 I guess you just have to understand maybe the mindset 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:32.520 of the homeleside detective, because you see stuff every day 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:35.240 that you think, you know, this is the craziest thing 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:39.479 I've ever seen, and this possibly can't can't be true, 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:43.279 But then you do your investigation, and sure enough it's true. 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:45.600 That for the man in the center of it, It 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:46.720 wasn't a surprise at all. 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:52.000 I knew the whole time, just in my mind, in 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:55.479 my heart, I knew that the Tesla will come back positive. 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:57.720 Was no doubt about it. 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:00.919 You blew their minds, Yeah did You wasn't supposed to 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:01.640 be here, but you were. 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:03.120 Yeah. 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:06.279 This baby somehow escaped the grasp of Franklin Floyd, the 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:10.000 serial killer. So how did he do it? How did 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:13.000 he get away? I knew the answer had to be 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:20.120 in his name. Stephen was born a brandy Bird but 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:23.440 ended up as a Patterson. That's because he was adopted 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:26.120 before he could even crawl or speak. It was an 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:28.920 informal adoption that seems to have taken place in a 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:33.520 trailer part without the usual paperwork, so formally connecting him 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:36.360 to his birth mother would take some serious detective work. 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:43.640 My name is Todd Matthews and this is Hello John Doe, 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:46.159 A sleuth, a family, and a serial killer. 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:47.160 The story of a. 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:49.880 Family torn apart by a tragedy and my quest to 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:58.960 bring them back together. Chapter two, An unusual Adoption. Once 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:02.640 I figured out Steve Patterson was Philip Stephen Brandenburg, I 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:05.440 had a ton of questions, like how did he get adopted. 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:07.960 Why I had no one ever found him? And why 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:10.560 did his biological parents give him up in the first place? 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:14.000 Safe to say, he had a big question too. 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:16.520 I want to let him my real mama dad word. 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:19.520 It's not like there's a box of bones to hand 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:21.440 to someone the way there is when you idde a 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:24.680 dead body and find the family. A DNA test isn't 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:26.880 a bar code. You can't just scan it and name 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:30.880 pops out. It's a lot more complicated. The DNA test 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:33.520 would tell us who he might match to genetically, but 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:36.000 we had to go looking for Steve's biological family too. 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:39.800 Here's some old fashioned reporting. We had to do it together. 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:42.720 Part of the reason he trusted me is because I've 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:44.080 been searching for him all along. 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:48.080 I think it's neat. I think it's cool somebody was. 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:52.760 Looking his girlfriend Janet O'Connor. What should I all go down. 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:56.800 He feels that you've been a blessing in his life. 0:07:57.520 --> 0:07:59.120 But we couldn't go out into the world and get 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:01.720 answers immediately. There was a lot that had to line 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:04.320 up for us to meet each other first. The pandemic 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:07.520 lockdowns kept us apart for a really long time. On 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:09.400 the phone I tried to help him find some initial 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:11.960 answers about who he was, but there was a lot 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:13.880 I wanted to wait on until we could meet in person, 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:17.880 talk man to man. So the week of Memorial Day weekend, 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.680 almost four years after he first called, I finally made 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:25.240 the trip. I flew from Knoxville to Charlotte and met 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:28.640 my producer, Kate Michigan. We rented a car to meet 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:31.760 Steph near his hometown, about an hour west of Charlotte's. 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:36.920 So to complicate things even more, our hotel in Charlotte 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:38.640 had a water main late and kicked us out at 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:42.520 four am. 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:43.560 What a nightmare. 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:46.400 We spent the next few hours at a waffle house, 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:50.199 watching the small North Carolina town wake up, eating waffles 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:53.400 and eggs, and obsessing over the day ahead, the questions 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:56.760 we'd ask, What would he be like in person? Would 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:58.520 we be able to answer the questions that he had 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:02.680 for us? It was an unexpected start to a unique day, 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:05.720 A rainy spring day, not human enough to be summer, 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:08.360 but it was clear it was going to downpour a minute. 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:12.000 I was nervous. I chewed up al my fingernails on 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:12.880 the way over. In the car. 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:16.080 Todd, how you doing and how are you feeling about Stephen. 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:18.280 That's my producer, Kate. 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:22.360 I think it's gonna have to be a man to man. 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:24.640 You look in my eyes. You know it's gonna be 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:26.319 kind of emotional. I know it. 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:29.480 The things that I do, the things that I have 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:33.080 urged to do, is sometimes it just seems supernatural in 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:36.960 a way. It's just like I don't know really exactly 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:39.439 what drives it, but it sounds like you. 0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:41.320 Do a lot of like you kind of have that 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:43.000 presence for like living people too. 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:45.320 I won't lie. 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:47.920 My job is taking me through so many different cases 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:50.439 over the years, but this time the stakes were higher 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:55.200 than a Georgia mine. There's a weight on you when 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:57.800 you're trying to get someone answers. This was different than 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:00.679 finding someone's name. I was trying to figure out why 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:05.199 Steve's parents gave him up for adoption. It's traumatic. By then, 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:07.040 I'd work for name Us, but I'd come from the 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:09.960 Dough network, where investigating what was done in groups and 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:12.560 family members helped solve and brainstorm new ways to help 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:16.000 find the missing. It was a community effort. I look 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:18.920 for Steve, I could prove it to him. I did 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:21.520 care for you. You didn't know you were lost, but 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:25.280 I did, and now we would finally meet. 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:32.440 Today's kind of starts a journey for you. 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:35.760 I've got butterflies now because I feel like I'm going 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:38.120 to meet somebody that has been a part. 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:39.600 Of my life for a long period of time. 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:42.520 Do you think he feels the same way I do? 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:46.040 And I feel like in some ways I take the 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:48.320 place of somebody's missing out of his life, and I 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:52.000 think in some ways he's taken the place of somebody's missing. 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:53.000 Out of my life. 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:55.559 He would have been close to the age of my 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:58.640 brother that has passed away, So it's and I'm not 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:01.320 replacing somebody with another person, but it's kind of nice 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:02.680 to have somebody in that spot. 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:07.960 You merge on to my south toward Gastonia. 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:09.760 I knew ahead of time this might be a hard 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:13.400 conversation that Steve had some complicated feelings about his past, 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:17.559 about his biological mom in particular. He told me before 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:19.760 that she threw him away like a piece of garbage. 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:22.480 And I said, maybe she put Moses in a basket. 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:24.560 You never know. 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:26.920 I mean, it's I think she might have been trying 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:28.840 to save him and not just get rid of him. 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:34.480 No, I have butterflos. We're getting there, ain't we. So 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:35.680 we got to our meeting place. 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:38.560 We couldn't meet it Steve in his girlfriend's house because 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:40.719 they got these little dogs barking NonStop. 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:44.280 Kate went outside to get him. How long was I 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:44.800 driving here? 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:47.960 Oh? Tenes? 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:50.600 Okay, Oh yeah, we just got I stood in our 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:52.960 meeting room waiting for him to come in, my heart 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:56.120 jumping out of my chest. And when we finally met 0:11:56.200 --> 0:12:03.600 face to face, it felt like a reunion. He was 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:07.600 exactly what I expected. He was about my height five seven, 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:11.200 wore a ball cap and a gray Vess glasses, salt 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:14.439 and pepper beer go tea kind of reminded me of 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:17.760 Kevin Bacon. We stood there face to face. 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:17.960 For a beat. 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:20.600 Where have you been all my life? Man? 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:25.640 We hugged and I could feel he was trembling. I 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:26.760 guess I kind of was too. 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:30.200 You must be you're nervous. 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:32.000 Yeah, don't be nervous. 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:34.520 I can see your chin quivering. You're fine. 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:35.280 We're good. 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:39.079 I'm your big brother now, so you can do this. 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:40.720 It's not gonna be easy. 0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:43.240 There's gonna be some tough moments in it. 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:46.520 Steve, You're all right, Okay. 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:53.400 He came with this girlfriend, Jeanette the meeting. 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:58.760 Just I've been excited all week because he has just 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:01.200 been a savior for us. Had it not been for 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:05.559 you when you were going through what we were at 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:08.880 the time and not being able to find any help 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:12.720 or anyone that wants to And then Todd just like 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:16.320 came in and just like swooped us up, and you 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:21.360 have been our saviors. So I appreciate it. But I mean, 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:24.080 I know how much he does too. He's just not 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:24.920 a big talker. 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:30.160 They met in high school, just like me and my wife. 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:34.959 They reconnected later in life. Steve became a stepfather to 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:35.839 Jeanette's kids. 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:40.440 There's not very many men that would do that, and 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:42.040 he's really good to my kids. 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:47.160 I'm thankful for that too. Sounds like you guys have 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:48.200 a really strong foundation. 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:56.040 Sometimes I'm just kinda definitely not perfect, but it's perfect 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:56.480 for us. 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:01.880 Here he was Steve with the girlfriend and kids of 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:05.080 his own. I wondered why he waited decades to call me. 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:09.000 Why hadn't you wanted answers before? What was standing in 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:13.320 his way? According to his own DNA, Steve was a 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:16.040 Brandyburg part of an other whole tribe of people. He 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:19.000 knew nothing about a group that had a serial killer 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:21.800 circle him like a buzzard. But before we get to 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:23.920 all that, I wanted to know what it was like 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:25.120 to grow up as a Patterson. 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:31.920 It wasn't anything different thanybody else. Just rode bikes and 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:33.880 played baseball and just grew up on. 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:36.400 Them short stopping outfield. 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:39.440 Steve was raised in North Carolina by his mom, Mary 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:42.120 stab Bob, and he has a sister named Tammy. 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:44.600 Steve came in with some baby photos. 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:47.280 He's got this big head of blonde hair, and some 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:50.320 pictures even looks up my grandson. There's one where he's 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:53.160 laying on this fluffy carpet smiling right into the camera. 0:14:54.080 --> 0:14:55.440 Do you remember when this photo was taken? 0:14:57.720 --> 0:14:59.160 It was probably at Sears. 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:01.040 We did the Seers. 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:02.760 I think that's a It wasn't old as me. 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:05.480 All town's southern thing. It's going to Seers to get 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:06.240 your pictures made. 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:08.840 It's like all the machiness right here. 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:13.360 Yeah, this crunch, this little crunchy scrunched up smile. In 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:16.440 high school, he's a pretty good student, straight a's for 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:19.040 the most part. His parents raised him good. 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:25.440 Don't lie don't steal. Definitely, don't steal. Definitely, don't steal. 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:26.440 There were a big time into that. 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:27.360 Well. 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:30.520 I didn't steal anything, but I guess because I listened 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:33.960 to him. Be on time, be early. 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:38.040 He took eight Stephen Jeanett were about thirty minutes early 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:46.200 to our meeting. Growing up, Steve really looked up to 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:48.160 his dad, Bob, my dad. 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:51.840 He worked a lot. He worked out of town. He'd 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:54.680 be gone, you know, weeks at a time. And sometimes 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:57.320 when he worked in Raleigh, we'd go up there and 0:15:57.360 --> 0:15:59.880 he ran a house and we'd all stay there for 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:03.440 weeks of time. He was a construction worker, a meal wright. 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:07.120 Growing up, no one ever talked about Steve's adoption. 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:09.200 I didn't know for sure, but I knew in the 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:13.200 back of my mind. I mean, it was never brought up. Never. 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:16.960 Then there was this one important day. He was a 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:22.600 teenager by then, and he was prowling around in his parents' bedroom. 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:25.520 I was running through the closet one day, just just 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:30.040 sleeping around, looking for guns, probably to go out shoot. 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:34.560 Was nobody there, and I found this packet, this manilla envelope, 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:37.880 and it had it had that I was adopted. 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:40.320 He had to open the envelope to see. 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:44.120 No, it was writing inside that said that. It said 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:46.560 that was adopted and I had my real name. My 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:51.000 name was Philip Stephen Brandenburg. And I read it that 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:55.400 day and didn't think about it until all this came out. 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:58.640 I mean, it never dawned on Melbourne. I wasn't interested 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:03.320 in finding then you know, here's Kate again. 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:05.359 And did you feel if you're holding a secret in 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:07.320 after you found out? 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:09.320 Just one? In my life? 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:13.400 Steve didn't confront Mary and Bob. He just tucked away 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:13.880 the m blow. 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:14.480 Now. 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:16.280 I didn't want to upset my mom and dad asking 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:19.840 him who my real mom and dad is, because I 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:21.520 thought maybe that would upset them, you know what I mean. 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:23.960 I didn't want to undermine them. 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:26.240 He was worried that had been salted. 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:29.920 I didn't want to roughly feathered hurt any feelings, if 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:30.560 that makes sense. 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:33.679 But as he settled in the middle age, it was 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:36.160 harder and harder to keep the Manila and bloke tucked away. 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:39.919 Life started to creep up on him. I know that feeling. 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:43.480 You start to enter your forties and fifties and there 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.440 are these questions you start to have about your own life. 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:48.679 Who you are where you came from. 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:52.680 Maybe it was now that I'm older, I'd like to 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:54.960 find out who I am. I kind of want to 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:59.040 know who my mom and dad were to see, you know, 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:05.160 for health reasons, for personality reasons, just to find out 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:06.040 where I came from. 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:09.160 And then he came face to face with it when 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:13.560 the only father he had ever known died. Now, I'm 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:16.199 not entirely sure why things were this way, but my 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:19.679 guess is it's equal parts Bob and Steve. Steve's not 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:22.399 the kind of guy to push for answers. Maybe Bob 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:25.480 didn't want him to ask. It's not like Steve's a stranger. 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:27.720 When the family raised him, he sees it's mom Mary 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:31.280 a Ton. Jeanette considers her as her own mama. They're 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:31.959 that close. 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:35.399 Mary is just as much my mom as you know, 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:38.720 I lost my mom about seven years ago, and so 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:44.240 having Mary in my life, I definitely think that you 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:46.800 choose your family. I don't think you're born into it. 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:50.840 She and Steve had been learning about Steve's past. Jeanette's 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:53.000 been like a little family carrier pigeon. 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:56.120 I feel like I'm kind of the go between between 0:18:56.200 --> 0:19:00.000 him and his mom. So he asked me the question, 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:03.560 and she answers, and then I just kind of relay 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:06.280 back and forth on everything, not just the story. 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:09.159 When I sit down with Steve and his family to 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:11.760 ask questions about his past, they were so open to me, 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:15.040 so matter of fact. Maybe because I'm a stranger. This 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:17.360 wouldn't be the first time or last time I'd encountered 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:19.639 this a family that was so open to tell me 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:22.479 secrets that they couldn't tell each other. So around here 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:24.200 in the South, there are some things you just don't 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:27.800 talk about, some things you don't question, not out loud anyway. 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:31.280 I think Steve's origin story is one of them. Or 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:35.280 was things changed when Steve's dad died. 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:41.560 I think if his died hide and passed away, then 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:43.800 he wouldn't it wouldn't have even come up. 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:47.320 I could see how Steve and Jeanette get along. They're 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:50.040 both as sweet as can be, but they're also kind 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:54.240 of opposites. Steve's more reserved on Jeanette pushes for answers. 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:57.720 She's a little more assertive. Put it this way, Steve 0:19:57.720 --> 0:19:59.960 didn't have the gumption to ask his mom about his adoption. 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:04.439 He sure didn't mind of Jeanette. Then the way Stephen 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:06.960 Jeanette remembering they were all hanging out of his family 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:10.040 after the funeral. They were at a church. Here in 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:12.040 the South, you either do the funeral at the church 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:14.800 or go to the church afterwards for a meal. It's 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:17.480 never super fancy, but you go to spend the time 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:19.560 with the loved ones and begin a new life with 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:23.840 someone missing from it. They're all hanging out eating chicken, 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:27.600 pop pie, green beans, veggies. When Jeanette brought it up, and. 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:30.080 We were just talking in general, and I just said, 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:33.800 you know, Steve is a little curious about who his 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:34.840 birth parents are. 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:39.119 And his mother Mary took a moment, collected herself and 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:41.639 said something she had known for half a century but 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:42.760 never said out loud. 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:46.640 My husband said he's ours to leave it alone. That's 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:50.200