The mysterious case of Paul Fronczak — a baby boy kidnapped from Chicago’s Michael Reese Hospital in 1964 — is the subject of ABC’s “Stolen at Birth: A 20/20 Investigation” at 9 p.m. Friday on WLS-Channel 7.
It’s a case that’s been written about repeatedly in The Chicago Sun-Times and other local news outlets. The FBI reopened it earlier this year after the nearly 50-year-old man who was raised in Oak Lawn as Paul Fronczak, now living in Nevada, found out through DNA testing that he’s not his parents’ biological child. Police long ago thought they had located the kidnapped newborn months later as a toddler in New Jersey and returned the child to suburban Chicago, although it’s now known they didn’t have the right person.
So who is Paul Fronczak? And what ever happened to the stolen baby? “20/20” and the ABC News investigative team, led by Barbara Walters and chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross, reportedly have been following the story for months. ABC cameras follow Fronczak’s journey as he searches to uncover his true biological identity.
ABC’s press materials on the upcoming episode read: “With the help of new age progression photos and several tips sent into ABC News and directly to Paul Fronczak, ’20/20′ tracks down several grown men who believe they could be the long lost, kidnapped baby. It is a journey that takes ’20/20′ from a firehouse in Chicago, to an oil field in Colorado, to a family home in Fresno, Calif. Plus, with the help of ancestry.com, Paul Fronczak learns for the first time what his genetic heritage is, and he even discovers that he has at least one living blood relative looking to meet him.”
“The investigation also uncovers many surprising details and questions whether the FBI, police and Paul’s parents knew all along that Paul was not the stolen baby. The hour will also feature an interview with the nurse who was the last to see baby Paul before he was kidnapped, as well as archival film and pictures. The case was recently reopened by the FBI, due in large part to ABC News’ investigative work.”
Should be interesting…
