Cops Returned Wrong Baby in 1964 Kidnapping

Chicago parents raised child found in NJ who DNA says isn't theirs
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 8, 2013 2:04 AM CDT
Updated Aug 11, 2013 7:00 PM CDT
FBI Returns to Case of Baby's 1964 Kidnapping
The FBI is taking another look at a 1964 kidnapping.   (Shutterstock)

Paul Joseph Fronczak was abducted as an infant from a Chicago hospital in 1964; shortly afterward authorities thought they'd found him and returned a baby to Fronczak's parents. That child was raised as Paul Fronczak—but a DNA test this year shows it wasn't him. Now, the FBI is reopening the case, the Chicago Tribune reports. The man raised as Fronczak is hoping to find the kidnapping victim, not to mention his own birth parents. "I'm in this for the long haul," he says.

"The perfect ending would be to find the real Paul, see that he's doing well and then on the same day find my real family," he says. In 1964, a woman posing as a nurse told mom Dora Fronczak the baby needed an exam; the "nurse" and the baby disappeared in a taxi, the Chicago Sun-Times notes. Investigators thought they'd found the baby in New Jersey, identifying an abandoned child as Fronczak partially based on the shape of his ears. Now, the FBI hopes "new witnesses come forward," and it may "subject some of the physical evidence to new and previously unavailable forensic examinations," says a rep. (More FBI stories.)

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