In 1977, a few months after Ray Johnson was served divorce papers from his wife, he showed up to pick up his then three-year-old daughter, Nicole, and six-month-old son, Jeremy, in San Jose for a weekend visitation and discovered his ex had disappeared with the kids. Authorities attempted to locate Johnsonâs ex and his children, but they were never heard from again.
Over the years, Johnson, a Navy veteran who served in Vietnam, continued to look for his kids. He even hired private investigators and learned that his ex had managed to change their birth certificates. Although he wasnât ever able to locate them, he never gave up. Then earlier this year, Johnson got a call from his brother, whoâd received an email from Jeremy after theyâd matched via DNA through a genealogy site.
On Easter weekend, Jeremy and his family flew to Nashville to finally meet Johnson. After 47 years of searching, he was finally reunited with his son. The dad was overjoyed to get to see Jeremy again and got a chance to see all that they had in common despite almost five decades of separation. The family is already making plans to get together this summer, and although there has still been no word on what happened to Nicole, Johnson wonât give up on one day being reunited with her too.
Source:Â WHNT