A Bonita Springs veteran gets the greatest gift of all. Bob Crystal was hoping to change the system when he first sat down with Fox 4 Investigates. Instead, he changed his entire life. Thanks to the story that appeared on Fox4Now.Com Bob discovered an adult daughter he never knew he had.
"I had the greatest blessing of my life," Crystal told Fox 4.
Fox 4 Investigates first introduced you to Bob Crystal in September of last year.
It was a story about pension benefits and the shortfalls in the state system.
Around the same time, more than 1,000 miles away in Maryland, Lauren King was investigating her own life story by using the ancestry service, 23andme.com.
"I wasn’t doing it to find out who my biological father was at the time. It was more to know more about my background and health conditions and things," King told Fox 4.
Much to her surprise, the DNA results revealed the name Robert Crystal as her likely biological father.
King and some friends began online snooping and wound up on Fox4Now.com.
"One of my really best friends sent me a screenshot and said ‘this is your dad right here. You guys look identical,'" King said.
Lauren admits she was scared. How would a man she never met respond to such life changing news?
But Bob was born to help.
He served in the U.S. Navy as a younger man.
Then spent 20 years with the New York Police Department.
He was retired when the twin towers were hit on 9/11 but he rejoined the department.
He tells Fox 4 he spent weeks digging through the rubble, looking for survivors.
"I wanted to know more," Lauren said about her biological father. "And after watching the type of person he was, on the interview, I thought this guy isn’t going to hang up the phone on me."
And he didn't. That phone call changed both of their lives forever.
"She seemed nervous, I guess, at what my response would be. I don’t know how you give any other kind of response to your child," Bob said.
Lauren says she had a great relationship with the man who raised her. It wasn't until he died that she learned the truth about her heritage.
"The man who raised her as her father was wonderful. I’ve heard nothing but good things. I’ve been praying for him every single day ever since," said Bob.
Since their first meeting, the pair have been inseperable.
Bob has made several trips up to Maryland to visit Lauren and her three children.
"One day I got up and had three children and a grandchild. When I went to bed I had four children and four grandchildren," said Bob.
