On April 27, 1964, a one-day old infant, Paul Joseph Fronczak was kidnapped from

Michael Reese Hospital Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center was an American hospital located in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1881, Michael Reese Hospital was a major research and teaching hospital and one of the oldest and largest ...

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Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. A woman dressed as a nurse had entered the hospital room of Dora Fronczak and told her the doctor needed to examine the baby, and Dora handed the baby to the unknown woman, who left the hospital with the baby and never returned. Two years later, the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

told the baby's parents that they believed they may have found Paul in New Jersey. The parents met the New Jersey child and said it was their child, and the child was raised as Paul Fronczak. Paul Fronczak doubted his identity as both a child and an adult, and after taking a DNA test in 2012, discovered that he was not related to his raised parents, Dora and Chester Fronczak. In 2015, he was identified as Jack Rosenthal, who had disappeared in 1965. Additionally, he had a twin sister named Jill Rosenthal who also disappeared. The original 1964 kidnapping victim was found alive in

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

in 2019, now named Kevin Ray Baty. Baty died from cancer in 2020. The woman who kidnapped the baby has never been identified. Jill Rosenthal has never been located, but Paul Fronczak believes that their parents, Gilbert and Marie Rosenthal, may have killed Jill around the same time they abandoned him, as witnesses told Paul Fronczak that he and Jill had been abused as children. However, Fronczak and investigators believe there is still a solid possibility that Jill is still alive. The 2021 documentary ''

The Lost Sons ''The Lost Sons'' is a 2021 American-British documentary film, directed by Ursula Macfarlane. It follows Paul Fronczak, a man who discovers he had been abandoned as a child and mistakenly returned to another family whose young son was missing. U ...

'' showed Paul Fronczak exploring details of his case.

Kidnapping of Paul Fronczak

Baby Paul Joseph Fronczak was born on April 26, 1964, at Michael Reese Hospital. One day later, a woman dressed as a nurse entered the room of Dora Fronczak, baby Paul's mother, and told her that the doctor wanted baby Paul examined. Dora handed baby Paul to the unknown woman, and the woman left the hospital with baby Paul and was never seen again. The investigation was the largest manhunt in Chicago history up to that point, involving 175,000 postal workers, 200 police officers, and the FBI. 600 homes were searched by midnight that night, but there was no trace of baby Paul.

Abandonment of Jack Rosenthal

On July 2, 1965, a male toddler with a

black eye A periorbital hematoma, commonly called a black eye or a shiner (associated with boxing or stick sports such as hockey), is bruising around the eye commonly due to an injury to the face rather than to the eye. The name refers to the dark-color ...

, later known to be Jack Rosenthal, was found abandoned in a pushchair in a busy shopping center in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.

Later developments

When Paul Fronczak was 10, he entered the crawlspace in his home looking for Christmas presents, and instead found newspaper clippings about the kidnapping of baby Paul. He brought the newspapers to his mother, who scolded him and said, "Yes, you were kidnapped, we found you, we love you, and that's all you need to know." Fronczak said that since then he had always wondered if he was actually his parents' child. He did not bring the subject up to his parents for almost 40 years. In 2012, Fronczak decided to take an IdentiGEN

DNA test Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...

. He asked his parents, and they were surprised, but agreed and met him in Chicago so they could take DNA samples together. Their meeting ended and Paul returned home to Las Vegas, then his parents changed their minds and told him by phone that they did not want him to send in the DNA kit. After struggling with the decision, Fronczak decided he would send in the samples anyway. He later received a phone call from IdentiGEN, and the caller told him there was "no remote possibility" that he was his parents' biological child.

Identification as Jack Rosenthal

Fronczak then wanted to find out his true identity, and also wanted to find out what happened to baby Paul. A group of genealogist volunteers called the DNA Detectives offered to take up his case free of charge in 2013. On June 3, 2015, the group told Fronczak that they had identified him as Jack Rosenthal of

Atlantic City, New Jersey Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497.

, who had seemingly vanished in 1965. They informed him that he also had a twin sister who had disappeared named Jill. Fronczak later met biological relatives, some of whom informed him that they had seen him and Jill as children, and suddenly stopped seeing them, and that his biological parents, Gilbert and Marie Rosenthal would come up with excuses as to why the twins would no longer be there at family meetings. Biological family members also recalled that they had seen Jack and Jill badly abused and neglected, and one family member said they witnessed Jack and Jill sitting "in a cage". Gilbert was described as "an angry man" after returning from the

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with

PTSD Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on a ...

, and Marie was described as a heavy

alcoholic Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomin ...

. Susan Wohlert, who had babysat the Rosenthals' older children, later told Fronczak that when she had babysat, Gilbert and Marie Rosenthal had told her "not to bother" with the twins upstairs. She went upstairs out of curiosity, where she found Jack and Jill in a room which was empty besides them in their cribs. She said that Jack had a black eye, that he and Jill were dirty, and that the room reeked of urine because their sheets had not been changed. She spent the whole night with Jack and Jill, and Gilbert and Marie were furious the next morning when they found her in Jack and Jill's room. Wohlert stated that she got the impression that Gilbert and Marie had been partying and that they smelled like alcohol. Gilbert and Marie both died in the 1990s from cancer. Fronczak said that he believes Jill may have been killed or "something tragic" may have happened to her, and that his parents then decided to get rid of him because "they couldn't explain just one twin". He said, however, that he believes Jill could still be alive, and the

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is a private, nonprofit organization established in 1984 by the United States Congress. In September 2013, the United States House of Representatives, United States Senate, and the Pres ...

created a composite reconstruction image of what Jill may look like if she is still alive. No pictures of Jill as a child are known to exist. The investigation into her disappearance is ongoing.

Discovery of baby Paul

In 2019, a Michigan man named Kevin Ray Baty was identified as the baby Paul Fronczak who had been kidnapped from a Chicago hospital in 1964, though his identity was not revealed to the public until 2020, when Ray died of cancer on his 56th birthday. Before his death, he spoke multiple times on the phone with his biological mother, Dora Fronczak, but they were never able to meet in person. Baty had been raised by Lorraine Fountain, who had been dating a doctor from Chicago when she suddenly moved to

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

for a year and then returned with baby Paul, who was raised as Kevin Baty. Fountain died in 2004. It is unclear how Kevin got the last name Baty. The perpetrator of his kidnapping has not been identified to this day. The FBI investigation into the kidnapping remains open.

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