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The FBI has reopened an investigation into the disappearance of Paul Fronczak, a newborn boy stolen from a Chicago hospital in 1964.
It comes after DNA tests showed that the child returned to the missing baby’s parents is not their son.
Paul Fronczak, now 49, was raised by Chester and Dora Fronczak after detectives found him abandoned in New Jersey in 1965.
But he questioned his identity as he felt he did not look like them, reports say.
Hundreds of police officers and FBI agents searched for the baby after his abduction from Michael Reese Hospital in April 1964 – when he was just one day old.
A woman dressed as a nurse reportedly told Dora Fronczak that the doctor wanted to examine her son. She handed him over and he was never returned.
Over a year later, a boy deemed to resemble the missing child was found abandoned outside a shop in Newark and given to the Fronczaks.
The FBI has reopened an investigation into the disappearance of Paul Fronczak, a newborn boy stolen from a Chicago hospital in 1964
Earlier this year Paul Fronczak asked his parents to do DNA tests, and they revealed the case of the mistaken identity, according to KLAS-TV News.
Joan Hyde, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s Chicago office, told the Associated Press that the bureau had decided to reopen the case after reviewing the original case file.
“We decided it merited another look,” she said.
“The main thing is to look at physical evidence and see if technology and tests that weren’t available when the case was originally worked could provide leads.”
Paul Fronczak, who is leading his own efforts to find his missing namesake, told Chicago radio he was optimistic about the renewed probe.
“Honestly, I really feel that we’re going to solve both these mysteries, and I’m very hopeful, and I really feel that it’s time,” he said.
“It’s going to happen.”
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Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro, who is accused of abducting, raping and beating Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus is the father of Amanda’s 6-year-old daughter Jocelyn, DNA tests have confirmed.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said in a news release this morning that state lab technicians worked through the night to confirm that the child born in captivity belonged to Ariel Castro.
Ariel Castro’s DNA was also tested to see if it was connected to any state crimes, specifically to similar missing teen cases in the area, but it resulted in no matches.
National results are still pending, The Plain Dealer reports.
Details emerged this week about the circumstances surrounding Jocelyn’s birth in the house of horrors Ariel Castro held the women in for a decade.
Amanda Berry, 27, is believed to have given birth to her daughter in an inflatable child’s swimming pool to ensure minimal mess. Michelle Knight was allegedly ordered by Ariel Castro to deliver the baby and was told she would be killed if the baby died.
Ariel Castro is the father of Amanda Berry’s 6-year-old daughter Jocelyn as DNA tests have confirmed
Baby Jocelyn was not breathing when she was born but Michelle Knight is said to have given her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to get her breathing started, in turn saving both their lives.
Jocelyn is said to have been instrumental in the escape of the three women as she alerted her mother Amanda Berry that Ariel Castro, 52, had left the house, prompting her to call for help from inside the boarded house.
The girl is believed to have told her mother: “Daddy has gone to see grandma.”
Jocelyn was the only one who would be taken out of the house by Ariel Castro on weekends to see his mother, Lillian Rodriguez. She called the elderly woman grandmother.
The girl was also seen out recently at a playground with Ariel Castro.
When Ariel Castro was asked who the young girl was he told neighbors she was his girlfriend’s daughter.
Police chief Ed Tomba said Amanda Berry had been home schooling her daughter.
Horsemeat has been detected in frozen lasagne on sale in Germany and supermarkets have started removing the product from their shelves.
Real supermarket chain said it had withdrawn TiP frozen lasagne – the latest tainted processed food to figure in a Europe-wide scandal.
Other German retailers including Tengelmann and Rewe are now checking their processed beef products too.
The EU Commission is urging member states to conduct random tests for horsemeat.
All EU members should carry out DNA tests on processed beef for traces of horsemeat for three months from March 1, the health commissioner said on Wednesday.
Horsemeat has been detected in frozen lasagne on sale in Germany and supermarkets have started removing the product from their shelves
The EU has outlined an “intensive monitoring plan” to tackle the widening scandal over mislabeled horsemeat.
All members would be asked to carry-out random DNA tests on beef products for traces of horsemeat for the next three months, the health commissioner said.
He was speaking after a crisis meeting with ministers from the UK, France and other affected countries in Brussels.
“This is a Europe-wide issue that needs a Europe-wide solution,” Irish Farm Minister Simony Coveney said.
“This is about someone in the food supply chain selling horsemeat as beef and making money in a fraudulent way by doing that,” Simony Coveney added.
EU Health Commissioner Tonio Berg also said a separate programme of random tests should be carried out on horsemeat to check for the presence of the veterinary medicine phenylbutazone – known as bute.
The measures follow the discovery that meat sold in up to 16 European countries labeled as beef contained horsemeat.
The scandal has raised questions about the complexity of the food industry’s supply chains across the 27-member EU bloc, with a number of supermarket chains withdrawing frozen beef meals.
In the UK, the supermarket giant Tesco, frozen food firm Findus and budget chain Aldi received horsemeat-tainted mince from Comigel, based in north-eastern France.
The EU has outlined an “intensive monitoring plan” to tackle the widening scandal over mislabeled horsemeat
Horsemeat has now been confirmed in some frozen lasagne on sale in France too.
In Germany, officials announced that a shipment of frozen lasagne suspected of containing horsemeat had arrived in the country. They were notified of the delivery by authorities in Luxembourg on Tuesday.
Comigel denied wrongdoing, saying it had ordered the meat from Spanghero, a firm in southern France, via a Comigel subsidiary in Luxembourg – Tavola.
The supply chain reportedly led back to traders in Cyprus and the Netherlands, then to abattoirs in Romania.
There are now calls for more specific labeling on processed meat products in the EU, to show country of origin, as in the case of fresh meat. But the cost of doing that may trigger opposition from food manufacturers.
Romania has denied claims that it was to blame for the mislabeling of horsemeat.
“There are plants and companies in Romania exporting horsemeat but everything was according to the standards, and the source and the kind of meat was very clearly put as being horsemeat,” said Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta.
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UK retailer Tesco’s DNA tests have revealed that some of its Everyday Value Spaghetti Bolognese contain 60% horsemeat.
The meal, withdrawn from sale on Tuesday, came from the French factory producing Findus beef lasagne, also at the centre of a row over horsemeat.
Meanwhile, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has told MPs of plans to test all processed beef in the UK.
Romania has rejected claims that it was responsible for wrongly labeling horsemeat from its abattoirs.
Tesco took the frozen bolognese off the shelves when it found out Findus was concerned about the source of its meat at the Comigel processing plant in Metz, north-eastern France.
It is one of several products that have been withdrawn from UK shelves amid the current scandal over horsemeat in food products in the UK and Europe.
Tesco Group technical director Tim Smith said: “The frozen Everyday Value Spaghetti Bolognese should contain only Irish beef from our approved suppliers. The source of the horsemeat is still under investigation by the relevant authorities.
“The level of contamination suggests that Comigel was not following the appropriate production process for our Tesco product and we will not take food from their facility again.
“We are very sorry that we have let customers down.”
Owen Paterson told MPs he had called in representatives of all Britain’s producers, retailers and distributors and “made it clear” he expected to see immediate testing of all processed beef products across the supply chain.
He said testing should take place every three months, and the Food Standards Agency should be notified of results.
Owen Paterson told representatives from the British Retail Consortium, the Food and Drink Federation, the British Meat Processors Association, the Federation of Wholesale Distributors, the Institute of Grocery Distribution and individual retailers that he expected to see:
- “meaningful results from this testing by the end of this week”;
- “more testing of products for horse along the supply chain and that the industry must co-operate fully with the FSA on this”;
- “publication of industry test results every three months through the FSA”;
- “and that they let the FSA know as soon as they become aware of a potential problem in their products”.
Tesco’s DNA tests have revealed that some of its Everyday Value Spaghetti Bolognese contain 60 percent horsemeat
In the Commons, Labour’s Mary Creagh accused Owen Paterson of being too slow to respond as incidents emerged.
“The secretary of state had to be called back to London from his long weekend to deal with the crisis,” she claimed.
“Until Saturday’s panic summit, he hadn’t actually met the food industry to address this crisis.”
News of the tests came after Romanian PM Victor Ponta earlier on Monday denied two abattoirs in his country sold horsemeat purported to be beef to European food companies.
The abattoirs had been linked to the contamination of processed meat products sold in Europe. Victor Ponta said checks were carried out and there had been no breach of rules and standards.
In France, consumer affairs minister Benoit Hamon said that the whole of the food industry would be under heightened surveillance, with more random sampling of products and wider use of DNA tests to determine the origin of meat.
French inspectors were at the Comigel headquarters in Metz in north-eastern France on Monday. Findus meals were made by the company at its Luxembourg factory.
Investigators were also at the offices in the south of France of the importer Spanghero, which brought the meat to France from Romania.
Last week Findus UK took its frozen beef lasagne, made by Comigel, off the shelves after some samples were found to contain up to 100% horsemeat.
Seven French supermarkets have withdrawn frozen ready-meals made by the company.
The controversy surrounding contamination of meat products has also affected firms in the Irish Republic and Poland.
Last month, Irish food inspectors announced they had found horsemeat in some burgers stocked by a number of UK supermarket chains, including Tesco, Iceland and Lidl.
And on Monday night, one Dutch supermarket chain took its Prima Frost brand of lasagne off the shelves amid fears it may contain horsemeat.
Owen Paterson said he would meet with his European counterparts and the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy Tonio Borg later this week in the wake of the scandal.
“At the moment this appears to be an issue of fraud and mis-labeling.
“But if anything suggests the need for changes to surveillance and enforcement in the UK we will not hesitate to make those changes,” he said.
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DNA tests have linked five men with the gang rape and murder from last month that has caused outrage in India, a court in Delhi has heard.
The pre-trial hearing was held at the District Court in the Saket area of the Indian capital.
The judge ordered the five to appear before her on Monday. A sixth suspect is expected to be tried as a juvenile.
The woman, 23, died last weekend. Her friend has been recalling the harrowing details of the attack on a bus.
The man, who has not been named, told Zee News how he and the victim had boarded the bus and paid a fare, before he was beaten unconscious by men on board, who then attacked her.
Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan told Magistrate Namrita Aggarwal that DNA tests confirmed by the Central Forensic Science Laboratory had shown that blood stains found on the clothing of all of the accused had matched the blood of the victim.
Rajiv Mohan also cited records from the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, where the woman died, which said death was caused by septicemia and multiple-organ failure.
The five accused, aged between 19 and 35, are charged with rape, abduction and murder, and could face the death penalty if convicted. They include the driver of the bus.
The prosecutor also said items robbed from the victim had been recovered from the accused.
The magistrate said: “[The suspects] will be produced in court on Monday.”
DNA tests have linked five men with the gang rape and murder from last month that has caused outrage in India, a court in Delhi has heard
A following hearing was set for January 10.
Protesters gathered outside the court in Saket, carrying a banner demanding justice for the victim.
The friend of the woman who died has given his first interview since the incident.
The man, who has not been named, told Zee News he and the rape victim had boarded the bus after a trip to the cinema and after failing to flag down an auto-rickshaw.
He said the bus had tinted windows, and that he believed the group of men had laid a trap for them.
“We tried to resist them. Even my friend fought with them, she tried to save me,” he said.
“She tried to dial the police control room number 100, but the accused snatched her mobile away.
“I tried to fight against the men but later I begged them again and again to leave her.”
He confirmed earlier reports that the assailants had thrown them off the bus and tried to run them over.
The friend said he had tried to get help from passers-by and motorists.
“They slowed down, looked at our naked bodies and left,” he said.
And he also criticized the authorities, accusing them of being slow to arrive, then arguing over jurisdiction, and eventually taking them to the wrong hospital.
“My friend was bleeding profusely. But instead of taking us to a nearby hospital, they [police] took us to a hospital that was far away,” he said.
Delhi Police on Saturday denied its officers were late in arriving. A statement said the first vehicle had arrived within four minutes of the distress call, left the scene with the victims within another three minutes and reached Safdarjung Hospital within another 24.
The case continues to put Indian life under a sharp magnifying glass, and for many people it is uncomfortable viewing.
Meanwhile, police have opened an investigation into whether Zee News broke broadcasting laws relating to disclosure of the victim’s identity.
The victim’s friend was not named but his face was shown.
Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told AFP news agency that a case had been filed against the broadcaster.
The case has caused a national outcry, and there have been frequent protests calling for greater protection for women.
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