The Long Search

MANNERS & MORALS

"I was sitting in the living room at home," said Anna Thompson, "when a statue of the Virgin Mary suddenly swayed and fell. Nothing but one arm was broken. I told my husband, "That's a sign. Something wonderful is going to happen about our boy' . . . I'm sure my prayers have been answered."

Arthur and Anna Thompson had never given up hoping that some day they would find Ronnie again. In the five years since he was kidnaped by his nursemaid, the

Thompsons have traveled to many places and looked at many babies who might have been their son. Always it was the same--the twinge of hope, the sharp pain of disappointment, the sad journey back to Dayton.

This time was different, Anna Thompson felt. She and her husband went to a white farmhouse near Hickory Corners, Mich, to examine a blond, blue-eyed boy of six. Nobody knew much about Tommy O'Neill who was small and shy. About all the police did know was that he had been handed over to a Mexican couple in Toledo, Ohio about the time of Ronnie's disappearance. Michigan welfare authorities took him from the Mexicans after they moved to Lansing, boarded him at the Hickory Corners farm.

Tommy was playing on the lawn. "That's my Ronnie," cried Anna Thompson. She was positive, and prepared to prove it. "My Ronnie had webbed toes," she said. An attendant removed a shoe and sock; the toes of Tommy's right foot were webbed. She smiled triumphantly. "The other was the same!" she said, and, sure enough, the toes on Tommy's left foot also were webbed. Tommy had blue eyes, and his ears lay flat, like Ronnie's.

Police wanted to make one more test. Samples of Tommy's blood, of the Thompsons' and of their two children back in Dayton were sent to the University of Michigan hospital, where a doctor ran them through 132 heredity tests. Through the night and until late the next day the Thompsons waited. Then a detective broke the news: "The blood tests show positively that Tommy O'Neill is not your son."

Anna Thompson screamed. Then she broke into tears. "I feel in my heart that God won't let me down," she sobbed. "I'm going to keep on searching."

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