Jun 18, 2009 5:42 pm US/Eastern
FBI: DNA Tests Show Mich. Man Not Missing LI Boy
John Barnes Requested DNA Tests To Find Out If He Was The 2-Year-Old Boy Who Vanished 54 Years Ago
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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John Robert Barnes, Kalkaska, Michigan man who believes he could be Stephen Damman, a child who vanished in 1955 from a bakery in Long Island, New York.
AP
DNA testing confirmed that a 54-year-old Michigan man is not a toddler kidnapped in Long Island, N.Y., in 1955, the FBI said Thursday.
The FBI said testing showed John Barnes of Kalkaska, Mich., is not Stephen Damman, who disappeared at age 2 from outside an East Meadow bakery while his mother shopped.
"DNA samples analyzed by the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, show John Barnes and Pamela Damman Horne do not share the same mother," the FBI said in a statement, referring to the sister of Stephen Damman.
Barnes has said he has long suspected the couple who raised him are not his biological parents, and the FBI took his DNA sample. He said he began investigating his origins years ago and found photos on the Internet that led him to believe he could be Stephen.
Barnes said pictures of the missing boy's mother when she was a young adult resembled what he looked like at the same age.
In Iowa, Stephen's father, Jerry Damman, said the news was disappointing.
"It's too bad we had to go through all of this for actually nothing in the end," he told The Associated Press.
Barnes said he was born the same year the boy disappeared, but that he only saw his birth certificate once.
Barnes' father, Richard Barnes, has called the speculation "a bunch of foolishness." He said John Barnes was born in a Navy hospital in Pensacola, Fla., on Aug. 18, 1955.
Police in Nassau County, N.Y., said a Michigan man contacted their office in the past few months saying he believed he was the missing toddler.
Barnes said the FBI took the DNA swab in March.
Damman said it's frustrating not knowing what happened to his son, even after all these years.
"I guess we don't know any more than we did," he said. "It's been very hard to bring this all up after all those years. It's been hard."
Cheryl Barnes, who lives with her father, said John had never been close to the rest of the family and previously had suggested he'd been switched at birth.
"He wanted to be by himself, do his own thing, be a loner," she said. "I feel bad for him that he feels this way. I feel bad for my dad. This is going to leave a lasting scar on him."
Barnes said he has become close with the woman who could be his sister, Pamela Horne of Kansas City. They did a home DNA test in March and he said it indicated they could be related.
"I'm really glad that I'm finally finding all of this out, finding out who I'm related to. Because I didn't want to get old and die and not know."
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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