Decades Old Chicago Kidnapping Case Took Odd Turn In New Jersey

NEWARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- The FBI has reopened a decades old kidnapping case. A baby taken from a Chicago hospital in 1964, was believed to have been found abandoned on a Newark street, and returned to his parents. He would later find out that the man and woman who raised him were not his biological parents.

Paul Fronczak has had two names in his life, but neither one is really him, CBS 2's Tamara Leitner reported Wednesday.

His story began in 1964, when Chester and Dora Fronczak had given birth to a baby boy in a Chicago hospital. They named the boy Paul Joseph Fronczak.

"Sixteen hours later, the nurse comes in, somebody dressed like a nurse, and tells Mrs. Fronczak that the doctor needs to see the baby," Paul explained.

The woman walked out the door and disappeared with the child. The incident sparked a nationwide manhunt. More than a year later a young boy was found abandoned outside of a department store in New Jersey.

That baby was presumed to have been the missing Fronczak child.

"The FBI decided that because my ears matched the Fronczak baby," he said.

While he was loved, Paul always felt like an outsider in his own family, a DNA test later proved that he was not the Fronczak baby.

The FBI announced that it will go back to the beginning, re-interview surviving witnesses, focus on physical evidence, and use new technology to crack the case.

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