It took one woman more than half a century to find a piece of her familial roots.
Kriste Hughes, 51, was reunited with her birth mother and brother after a lengthy search.
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Hughes was one of 200 children sold into adoption on the black market by Dr. Thomas Jugarthy Hicks, an unscrupulous physician in McCaysville, Ga., decades ago.
“I know this is real, but I’m still kind of in shock,” Hughes told ABC News, which helped her and eight other “Hicks babies” to locate their biological relatives.
Hughes always thought a part of her true self was missing, she told Nightline in an interview that was to air Thursday. She hoped finding a sibling or relative would fill that void, she said.
Her adoptive dad supported her endeavors to put the missing pieces of her biological family back together.
But her search always hit a dead end.
Hicks, who died in 1972, illegally sold nearly 200 newborns into black market adoptions between 1950 and 1965.
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The corrupt doctor’s misdeeds didn’t end at illegitimate adoptions; he also performed unlawful abortions.
Hicks deceived many mothers into believing he wanted to find their babies good homes.
But the sinister doctor always lied to make a profit.
Hicks would tell mothers their babies were dead and then sell the infants for $800 to $1,000 per head, which included a forged birth certificate with the names of the adoptive parents.
The doctor died before he could ever be held accountable for his crimes. With no record of the original birth mothers, Hughes and many others were left questioning their origins and searching for answers.
The largest genealogy website, Ancestry.com, helped Hughes and the others track down their birth parents.
She sent her DNA sample to the lab and the site analyzed the specimen for free.
But chances of finding a match were slim. The database includes 1 million people, far less than 1% of the global population.
Despite the long odds, Hughes found her match — a first cousin named Jackie Flowers.
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She called her cousin who said both of her aunts had given birth at the Hicks clinic, but only one was still alive.
Another DNA test returned a match. This time she got a mom and a big brother.
The living aunt was her biological mother, who had a 52-year-old son, Roger Tipton.
“I know this is real, but I’m still kind of in shock,” Hughes said.
“Nightline” flew Hughes to rural Georgia for the family reunion. She and her brother hugged each other happily.
“I wish I had had a sister to pick on or picked on me or something,” her brother said. “I just don’t think [Hicks] had a right to play God and bust up our family.”
Thelma Tipton, 75, said Hicks broke the news to her that her daughter was a stillborn.
Tipton signed off on her baby girl’s death certificate and Hughes was sold off one week later.
“I’ve got both of my kids, my son-in-law, and my daughter-in-law and three of my grandkids,” Tipton said. “I’m happy.”
Source: https://t-tees.com
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