Breaking: DNA Shows Man Not Long-Missing Boy

By: Edecio Martinez
Topics: Daily Blotter

(CBS/AP)

Photo: Stephen Damman, left, John Barnes, right.

DETROIT (AP) The FBI says DNA testing has confirmed that a 54-year-old Michigan man is not a toddler kidnapped in Long Island, N.Y., in 1955.

The FBI said Thursday that testing showed John Barnes of Kalkaska (kal-KAS'-kuh), Mich., is not Stephen Damman, who disappeared at age 2 from outside an East Meadow bakery while his mother shopped.

Barnes says he has long suspected the couple who raised him are not his biological parents, and the FBI took his DNA sample. He says he began investigating his origins years ago and found photos on the Internet that led him to believe he could be Stephen.

Barnes says he was born the same year the boy disappeared but that he only saw his birth certificate once.

Stephen's father, Jerry Damman, says: "It's too bad we had to go through all of this for actually nothing in the end."

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by drannie1 July 10, 2009 9:04 AM EDT: I was 8 & living next door to the Dammans when Stephen disappeared. Neighbors speculated that Marylin had fabricATED THE STORY ( THERE HAD BEEN ANOTHER HIGH PROFILE Long Island KIDNAPPING ABOUT A MONTH PREVIOUSLY- the Weinberger case) following fatally injuring Stephen. She had been observed to be very physically aggressive with him - several adults had reported their concerns to the post chaplain prior to his disappearance- but were rebuffed - in those days few would've suspected a parent of abuse.; Reply to this comment