Benjamin Baker
Real Name: Benjamin Austin "Benny" Baker
Case: Lost Son
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Date: 1934
Margie (left) and Lois
Case[]
Details: Imagine you are a young girl, barely fourteen. Your mother is dying. In desperation, she begs you to marry a man she hopes will care for you. One more than four times your age. That is exactly what happened to Margaret Elizabeth "Margie" Hamilton in May 1932. Over the years, she told the story to her daughter, Lois Baker Lane, many times, the pain as vivid as if it had happened yesterday.
According to Lois, Margie did not want to get married because she was still a child. She was not happy about the situation, and she told her mother that she did not want to marry him. But her mother was afraid that there would not be anyone to take care of her and she would be left alone.
Margie's new husband was James Austin Baker, a lumber yard worker in Atlanta, Georgia. Within a year or so of their marriage, she gave birth to a son named Benjamin Austin "Benny" Baker. She was very happy when he was born; she loved him and thought of him as her "little doll". James, however, was not pleased. He already had three grown children from a previous marriage. He did not want any more.
When Benny was eighteen months old, he became ill. He was so ill that Margie had to leave him in the hospital for three days. When she returned, he was gone. She was hysterical and tried to find out where she had to go to get him back. However, no one would give her any information. Behind her back, James had given him up for adoption. There was nothing she could do; he was gone.
Lois later asked Margie why she stayed with James. She said that he always promised her that he would sign the papers so that she could get Benny back. That was the reason that she did so. Three years after Benny was taken away, she gave birth to a daughter named Naomi. Three years later, she had Lois.
James tried to give Naomi and Lois up for adoption as well. However, by that point, they had moved to California where the laws were different. Margie had also learned how to read and write. As a result, she was able to keep Naomi and Lois. In 1944, James died. Finally, Margie was free to search for Benny. But when she went back to the orphanage in Atlanta, she was given only a photo (seen above) taken when he was about seven. They told her the records were sealed and to forget she had ever had a son.
At that point, Margie gave up. She figured that she would never see Benny again. However, she never forgot him; she always wanted him to know that she did not give him away and that he was literally stolen from her. Lois knows there may not be much time left for a reunion, but she clings to the hope that she can give Margie – now eighty – one last precious gift. She hopes to be able to tell her, "Momma, here's Benny. Here's your son."
Benny was adopted from an orphanage in Atlanta.
Extra Notes: This case first aired on the June 4, 1999 episode, along with that of Gerry and Terry Robinson.
Results: Solved. Within minutes of the broadcast, two viewers contacted the telecenter and said that Benny had once lived as a foster child in their home. The information they provided was enough for Lois to locate him in Everett, Washington. She learned that he entered the foster care system at eighteen months old and grew up just outside of Atlanta. He later became a salesman, married, and started a family. Sadly, he had spent his entire life believing that Margie had cruelly abandoned him.
Shortly after the broadcast, Benny boarded a plane to Colorado Springs, Colorado to find out the truth. After six decades of separation, he, Margie, and Lois finally were reunited, their shared anguish evaporating in an outpouring of love. Lois was overjoyed to find him, and that Margie was still alive to meet him. He had given up hope of ever finding his birth family a long time ago. He was very happy to be able to do so. Margie had prayed that she would be able to find him for years. She is glad that she is able to see him, that he is well and happy, and that they could all be together before her "time comes".
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