Man with 'incredible childhood' had no idea he was missing for 33 years

A man who was beginning to take an interest in his childhood was stunned after he found himself on a website dedicated to missing children.

Most people don't often need to wonder about their youth and have enough memories, videos and photos to know for sure who they are, where they were born and who their parents are.

However, that was not the case for Steve Carter, who was adopted from an orphanage in Honolulu, Hawaii, when he was four years old.

Speaking on the What it looked like podcast, the seller said: “I had an incredible childhood.

“I was adopted and raised by two simply phenomenal people… They will always be my parents.”

However, he didn't know who had left him at the orphanage, or why.

But after hearing on the radio a story about a missing woman who discovered she had been abducted as a child when she found a poster of her missing children, Carter became interested in her past.

While searching for details about missing children in Hawaii, he eventually found a picture of himself as a baby next to a digitally aged image of what he might look like now, using images of his mother and father, on MissingKids.com.

Carter said he knew immediately it was him.

He then took steps to solve the mystery and contacted the police. Carter took a DNA test and after months of waiting, the police were able to confirm that it was indeed him.

He learned that his birth name was Marx Panama Moriarty Barnes and that his father, Mark Barnes, had reported him missing after his mother, Charlotte Moriarty, went for a walk with him in June 1977 and never returned.

Charlotte allegedly went to a stranger's house and gave her baby Barnes/Carter a false name before being admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Baby Barnes/Carter was then placed in protective care.

This ultimately hampered search efforts for the child and resulted in his adoption by Steve and Pat Carter, who raised their son in New Jersey three years later.

Carter eventually reconnected with some of his family members, including a half-sister and his father, much to their surprise.

However, he never met his biological father in person, despite an exchange of letters and emails.

Speaking about their first phone call, Max Barnes told People in 2012: “All I could say was, 'Wow. Oh, wow. Wow.'

“I was always expecting a knock at the door or someone to call me.”