Local sleuth reunites brothers
Separated by years but not by differences
Visalia Times Delta
November 1, 2005
By Jillian Daley
Staff writer
How's this for a fateful reunion?
Two half-brothers, separated for 20 years, not only find each other,
but a stack of similarities.
Before being deployed to Iraq, Ryan Lee, 20, of Visalia, a soldier
in the U.S. Army, had one wish: He wanted to find his long-lost, half-brother.
His mother, Cindy Carnes of Visalia, hired a private investigator,
who two days later found the brother in O'Fallon, Mo. The next day,
Lee learned he was being sent to a military base for special training.
In O'Fallon, Mo.
The story began Oct. 20 when Ryan Lee's mother went to private investigator
Rocky Pipkin's office and asked him to help her son find the half-brother
he had not seen since he was 1-year-old.
Pipkin did the job for free and produced a phone number for Jeremy
Lee, 24, living in O'Fallon.
On Sunday, Jeremy Lee drove to Fort Leonard Wood in O'Fallon, where
his younger half-brother is now stationed, to meet him. The two discovered
they not only share the same father and last name but also are the
same height, 6-foot-1-inch, and weight, about 170 pounds. They share
the same features. They also share a similar career.
Jeremy Lee also served in the army but as a medic. He left as a sergeant
and joined the Air National Guard. He now works as a mechanic, repairing
F-15 fighter jets.
Ryan Lee learned about his half-brother four years ago when his father,
Tony Lee, told him on one of their semi-annual visits. Carnes and Tony
Lee divorced when Ryan Lee was 4.
Carnes said she mentioned it to her son when he was a child, but he
forgot about it. Years later, she did not see fit to tell him.
"I felt this was something his dad should tell him," she
said.
His father chose to tell Ryan Lee because he began to ask questions;
he wanted to know more about himself and his family. The issue weighed
heavier still when Ryan, a combat engineer with the rank of specialist
in the Army, learned he would be sent to Iraq for a year, starting
in January.
"Knowing that I could have not met him and something would have
happened to me wouldn't have been a good thing at all," Ryan Lee
said. "I rest a little easier now that I've gotten to meet him."
Ryan Lee will be home with his sister, stepbrothers, mother and stepfather,
Stephen Carnes, in December after the two weeks of training and a brief
return trip to Germany, where he has spent the past two years. Jeremy
Lee will join him in Visalia after Christmas.
The two last knew each other when Ryan Lee was almost 1 and Jeremy
was 4. That was before Jeremy Lee's mother, Theresa Schroeter, moved
to Missouri with her new husband, Tony Lee. Tony Lee and Schroeter
divorced, and she remarried. He also remarried, then divorced his third
wife.
For some, the change in partners would have been too confusing to
find answers, but to Pipkin the paper trail was crucial. The divorce
records were the key to finding Jeremy Lee. In California alone, there
are 13,000 Jeremy Lees, he said.
Ryan Lee said for those seeking a loved one: "You
can't do it on your own. Go find someone who can do it. Go out there
and do it.
Don't be scared."
Visalia Times Delta
November 1, 2005
Section: Local
Page: 1A
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