this is "nightline." >> tonight a loving parent searching for his own. >> why can't i find my family? >> band only as a newborn in this alley way. >> as soon as i read that article, i immediately filled in to try to figure out who that baby in the alley way was. >> an investigator genealogist uncovering the secret of his past won't an extraordinary journey. i found it under forgivable that somebody could leave a child. >> i was mad for a long time. >> after decades of searching? a family found. >> this special edition of "nightline." face to face will be right back. ack.

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this is a special edition of "nightline." face to face. a five decades family secret began thgt alley way. a newborn baby, abandoned on top a pile of trash. >> it is hard to imagine. >> that infant today, a grown man. >> already nervous and i'm drinking more coffee. >> his lifelong mystery about to be sofd. >> by this woman, a renowned

investigative genealogist who discovered who left him there and why. >> i have a lot of information to give him. >> sheets reunited dozens of children with their birth parents. >> jimmy: d . >> dna duds not lie. i like the fight for the underdog. this agony of not knowing your answers of the it's over. >> three years earlier, pam, an abc news consultant and author of reunited was working another case about a kidnapped baby in chicago with she discovered this article from 1964. >> i mean, this immediately grabs my attention. the child was found in a cardboard box left with a car n carton. as soon as i read that article, i immediately dove in to figure

out who that baby in the alley way was. >> his name, bill gillespie. he's the patriarch of this tight-knit family living in the suburbs of chicago. the orphan for whom family means everything. >> i can't imagine a day without my family, being away from them. when bill was just 4 months old, he was adopted by a loving older couple. >> do you remember the first time you realized what being adopted meant? >> probably 5 or 6. my parents tried explain it to me. the way they put is it, we picked you. we came is that we found and you we picked you. >> he grew up selling adoption days, along with his birthdays. >> these are scenes from a happy childhood. >> oh, yes. >> he waited until they passed away to ask a few soul searching questions. >> the older i get, the more i want to find out. i just want answers. >> one of his first steps,

receiving out to his adoption agency, catholic charities. he was unprepared for what they wrote back. >> they had very little to share. we never met your birth parents. you were a foundling. >> it was the first time he even heard the word, a material for children found in the street. >> it takes your breath away.aw. inju your jaw drops. >> what is that like? >> it is anger. why can't i find my family? >> for the next two decades, he was an on again, off again searcher. >> bill was half in his search and half out. he was just trying preserve himself from being hurt. >> at one point he even tried his net on internet adoption boards. >> it's kind of daunting how many people are looking of the will. >> it fees like needle in a hay stack. >> that's when he got a fateful

phone call from pam slaton. >> he was really shy when we first spoke. there was something good that drew me in to him. >> she takes on his case pro bono. sharing the first clue, the 1964 article pinpointing the alley way he was left in. the details so haunting. he had to go see for himself. >> it's kind of hard to imagine. >> ironically the alley way, just an hour drive from where bill is raising his own family. his youngest daughter morgan is there to support him. retracing what he believes were his birth mother's foot steps. >> we're in the alley way. just off the street. >> you can walk past and see it. it's not what i was picturing. i wonder if she lived order here. >> for years, bill was troubled by the idea that any parent

could abandoned their newborn only hours old. >> i was mad for a long time. >> but now standing here, he feels something different. >> i feel bad for my mom. my birth mother. you're still place in the an alley way. so i guess you don't really know how to take it. >> are you feeling all right? >> pam slaton has just made another break in his case. months earlier she had bill takes an ancestry.com daniels test. >> dna has completely changed everything that i used to know how to do in terms of searching. >> it covers both sides of his biological family. >> he ended one a close family match and he ended one a first cousin. >> after digging through public records -- >> up comes a cook county illinois marriage license. >> it is the lynchpin that linked the two sides of his

biological family. >> you're getting butterflies. >> yes. very anxious. >> today is the day. >> i had crazy things going through my mind last night. >> pam is on her way to bill's house to meet with him in person for the first time and deliver the news. >> okay. this is the support system. my crazy support system. >> okay. here we are. >> are you worried you might be opening skeletons in the closet? >> yes. >> she's here. >> come on in. so glad to finally meet you. >> are you okay? >> i'm good. >> his family fully supported him. there was so much love between them. >> you have stellar dna. >> pam shares a stunning revelation. >> it hits me like ton of bricks.

your mother married your birth father. >> despite what he had always believed, he wasn't born to an unwed mother. >> you're kidding me. >> here it is. here's the marriage record. >> cook county. >> here comes the not great part. your birth mom did pass. >> i just knew. i don't know how i knew. i just knew. >> unfortunately, your birth father also passed. >> okay. >> his dreams about meeting his birth parents dashed forever. but there's still hope for a reunion. it turns out his birth mother remarried. >> he does not live far from here. >> nobody knows anything. i have not called anybody. >> hands trembling, bill dials the and hope for the best. >> when we come back, bill's search takes a jaw-dropping term. >> i silently was panicking.

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>> so pam coaches bill on how to make a cold call to someone who doesn't even know he exists. >> i don't know if you know about me but i've been searching for my birth family and i think you and i are related. it helps to face the biggest fears. the fear of rejection, the fear of the unknown, the fear of how is this person going to receive me. >> facing his fears head on, he dials. it goes to voicemail. >> hi, ken. my name is bill gillespie. i know this is strange. nothing bad. all good. i would appreciate a call back. thank you. >> could you tall me back when you're ready to chat? >> while they wait, pam has teed up another family member who seems to have known his father. she posts a cryptic message. >> once again they pick up the

phone. but nothing could prepare him for what she says next. >> his birth father had murdered a police officer before bill was born. >> for me, a panic set in. when you find out this person you're searching for is a murderer, you're starting to think, who did i come from? >> thank you for your time. >> thanks, maureen. bye-bye. >> wow! >> wow! i can see why i was placed where i was. >> she might have been terrified if she had you to bring you to the police to get help if he shot an officer. you've got this. you can handle this. you're welcome. >> but within hours of pam's departure -- >> he's calling you. >> the call he's been waiting for. >> hello. this is bill. >> it's ken and now bill has to

explain to a complete stranger -- >> is this ken? >> that they're brothers. >> how are you doing? >> i know this is going to sound a little crazy. i've been doing a dna search with a genealogist. i was documentadopt out of chici am related to you. >> everything points to it being that your mother would be his mother. >> ken tells him his mom had never told him about the other baby boy she had given birth to all those years ago. >> i think that your mom wanted to get me away. >> that's when bill begins on reveal the dark family secret about his birth dad. >> okay. he was arrested for shooting a chicago police officer. >> and his new brother shares a secret of his own. >> okay. >> their mother had been battered by bill's biological father. ken offers up something bill had

only dreamed of. a chance to meet face to face. >> we're in the area. we're all close. thank you, sir. thank you. i appreciate it. >> nice guy. >> this is nuts! this is crazy! >> an act of desperation in that alley way all those years ago takes on a whole new meaning. >> maybe fear for me instead. >> what bill thought was once a cruel, callous act was perhaps quite the opposite. it may be what saved him. that one decision, breaking a chain of alleged abuse and criminal activity. >> man, am i lucky. i am a lucky person. this is the start of a journey. >> today is the day -- when bill will meet his flesh and blood brother for the first time. bill had no idea all along he had been raising his own family

just a 30-minute drive from ken. his wife laura and their two children, abby and john. >> i've went like a kid christmas eve. >> a newfound brother is especially meaning tofl ken. who lost not only his mother but also his brother years ago. >> i miss being able to talk, to go share things. so it's kind of -- lost one brother but i feel like i'm gaining another. so it's kind of -- i feel a connection with him. >> getting closer. >> i know. on the way to meet ken, bill is a ball of nerves. >> wow! >> ken and his family wait on pins and needles at the park where they've agreed to meet. >> don't pass out.

don't pass out. >> i'm so excited for you. >> hi! >> she's so cute. she's jumping up and down. she's adorable. >> hi! >> after decades of searching -- >> i know we've talked enough. >> the moment he's greemd for years. >> man -- how are you? >> i'm so excited. how are you doing? >> good. >> do i really? >> yeah. do you want to see some pictures? >> i would love to. >> take a look. you look like your mom. >> bill pours over family photos. >> i feel so bad that i didn't get to you in time. >> don't kick yourself over it. you had to do it at your own time, your own pace. >> the two brothers try the catch up on a lifetime of memories. >> my first car was a 1970 grand

prix. >> you can tell he already loves him so much. >> an ordinary family picnic. to celebrate an extraordinary family reunion. >> this special edition of "nightline" is brought to you by zyrtec. hey allergy muddlers: are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool? try zyrtec® zyrtec® starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. stick with zyrtec®. muddle no more®. starting sunday save up to $14 on zyrtec® products. see sunday's newspaper. ♪

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