When Steve Carter was four years old, he was adopted from an orphanage in Honolulu, Hawaii. He enjoyed a wonderful childhood with his adoptive family, but knew nothing about his early life.
As Carter grew up, he became curious about his origins. What he discovered changed his life forever. Speaking on the What It Was Like podcast, the salesman expressed profound gratitude for his adoptive parents, describing them as phenomenal. Yet, despite his happy upbringing, he was haunted by questions.
After hearing a story about a woman who found out she’d been abducted as a child, he began digging into his own past. Carter stumbled upon MissingKids.com and saw a photo of himself as a baby, along with a digitally aged image of what he might look like now. The resemblance was unmistakable.
“I got chills,” Carter recalled. “I was like, ‘Holy crap, it’s me.’” The discovery led him to contact the police and undergo DNA testing. The results confirmed that he was indeed the missing child from the photograph.
He learned that his birth name was Marx Panama Moriarty Barnes. His father, Mark Barnes, had reported him missing in 1997 after his mother, Charlotte Moriarty, took him on a walk and never returned.
Charlotte had gone to a stranger’s home and given a fake name for herself and her baby. She was later admitted to a psychiatric hospital, while baby Barnes/Carter was placed in an orphanage 30 miles from his home, a circumstance that hampered search efforts.
Steve and Pam Carter eventually adopted him, and he moved to New Jersey with his new family. Years later, he reconnected with some of his biological family, including his father and half-sister. Reflecting on his first phone conversation with his biological son, Mark Barnes could only say, “Wow. Oh, wow. Wow.” He had always hoped for a reunion.
Carter expressed a desire to meet his biological family in person, saying it’s important to know where you come from. “It would be a real shame if I didn’t get to know the people I’m related to,” he said. “It’s good to know where you’ve come from.”
