Man unravels his past after finding own pic on missing persons site

New York, Apr 28 (ANI): A man in US found out that he was kidnapped by his own mother after he found his picture on a missing persons website.

Steve Carter from Philadelphia is now unravelling the details of his childhood abduction, more than a year after finding his own face on the website.

Carter, 35, knew he had been adopted from a Hawaiian orphanage as a child, but never knew anything about his biological family. He had always been puzzled about a couple things, like his birth certificate, which wasn't created until almost a year after his birth, and listed him as a half-native Hawaiian.

"I don't really have many of the features of a native Hawaiian," the New York Daily News quoted him as telling CBS News.

He became even more curious about his past after hearing the story of Carlina White, the Atlanta woman who made headlines when she found her baby picture online, then learned that she had been kidnapped from a Harlem hospital as an infant in 1987.

Carter's hunch was confirmed when he found a picture of himself last year on MissingKids.com.

But the photo wasn't of Carter - it was an age-progression image of what Max Panama Barnes, who was listed as a 5-month-old missing baby, would look like at 26 years old.

"My first thought was, 'Oh my God, that's me'," he said.

Carter and Barnes had the same birthplaces, and their birth dates were one day apart.

He called the Honolulu police department and set up a DNA test.

"I let them know my info and they ran with it," he told CNN.

"They were the ones who did all the legwork," he said.

Nearly a year later, Carter had the truth: He was born Max Panama Barnes.

"That's when it really started to sink in that I've got a family.

"I've got another family," he said.

Carter learned that his biological mother ran away with him in 1977. She changed his name, birth date and even the race of his father - explaining why his birth certificate listed him as a half-native Hawaiian.

Carter thinks his mother put him in the orphanage from which he was adopted, and that she wound up in a psychiatric hospital, CBS News revealed.

By the time Carter's biological father reported him missing, he had a new identity and police didn't make the connection.

Now, Carter has reunited with his biological father, Max Barnes, who lives in northern California. (ANI)