Sister reunited with her long-lost brother after 12-year search as Facebook campaign reveals he was living only 30 miles away

  • Julia Mauer started searching for her brother five years ago
  • But the wrong year of birth meant she never tracked him down
  • Miss Mauer, 24, posted picture on Facebook where it got 2,000 shares
  • A woman got in touch to tell Miss Mauer her 19-year-old brother, Isaiah, was living 30 miles away in Aurora, Colorado

By Emma Thomas

PUBLISHED: 03:11 EST, 11 October 2013 | UPDATED: 07:37 EST, 11 October 2013



A woman who tracked down her long-lost brother more than 12 years after they were separated has discovered he was living just 30 miles away.

Julia Mauer, who lives in Lochbuie, Colorado, started searching for her brother, Isaiah Luke, five years ago but was unaware she had got his date of birth details wrong.

Miss Mauer posted a picture of herself holding a sign appealing for help on Facebook and within hours it had gone viral and been shared more than 2,000 times across the site.

By Wednesday night, she had located her brother and discovered he had been living just 30 miles away in Aurora, Colorado, for the last decade.

Fulfilment: Julia Mauer (pictured) said she 'almost passed out' when she realized she had found her long-lost brother on Facebook.

Fulfilment: Julia Mauer (pictured) said she 'almost passed out' when she realized she had found her long-lost brother on Facebook. She had been searching for him for five years but it was only when she posted this picture on the social networking site that someone got in touch to tell her she had been searching with the wrong year of birth

'I've never felt this happy, this sort of fulfillment, and closure of the past in my entire life,' a tearful Miss Mauer told ABC News today. 'It's tears of joy. It's also a new beginning. I have part of my family back, I have part of myself back.'

Miss Mauer, 24, says she hasn't met her 19-year-old brother in person yet but they are now friends on Facebook.

'He accepted my friend request on Facebook and I've been stalking him,' She said. 'He's so handsome and so tall.'

She remembers his bright blue eyes and added, 'I miss seeing those eyes.'

 

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Miss Mauer, who is now a manager at a medical center and also owns beauty firms Julia's Wraps and Rhinestones, remembers growing up with parents who suffered from substance abuse and were physically and verbally abusive.

Child Protection Services had to intervene and Miss Mauer, along with her twin sister, Isaiah and their youngest sister Sarah were removed from their home.

Sharing one mother but different fathers, Miss Mauer's paternal grandmother was granted custody of the twins, while Isaiah and Sarah were temporarily placed with their paternal grandmother. Miss Mauer was 12 and her brother was seven.

"I looked high and low... I always found dead ends but I had this draw to find him." - Julia Mauer

'Their father kept on coming back and was physically abusive,' Miss Mauer recalls, so Isaiah and Sarah were put into foster care. They were later adopted and they lost contact.

'Growing up there weren't a lot of great things, but he was such a light in my life,' Miss Mauer says of her brother. 'When he was born, we had something to care for.'

Miss Mauer had been searching for her brother for years. She scoured Facebook and went as far as looking up athletic rosters and high school online yearbooks to find him.

She said 'I looked high and low, searched his name a million times on Facebook thinking of any way I could possibly find him.

'I always found dead ends but I had this draw to find him.'

She decided it was time to take it to the public. On Tuesday afternoon, Miss Mauer posted a Facebook selfie and a sign that displays all the information she knows of her baby brother.

Along with the post, she included a blurb urging people to share her story, to tell people of her 'little brother named Isaiah Luke who has been missing from my life for the past 12 and a half years.'

'I was sitting here and something just told me to do it,' Miss Mauer said.

When she woke up Wednesday, the post had been shared 2,000 times.

She said she was overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and support from the Facebook community.

Overwhelmed: Julia Mauer said she received a lot of love and support from the Facebook community
Overwhelmed: Julia Mauer said she received a lot of love and support from the Facebook community

Overwhelmed: Miss Mauer said she had a lot of love and support from the Facebook community. After a woman got in touch through Facebook to tell her she thought her brother had adopted Isaiah, she typed his named into Facebook and started crying as she recognized him

'I just started crying,' Miss Mauer said, 'I was so happy, I couldn't believe it.'

Two Colorado TV stations also saw her post and interviewed her about the search. Those stories prompted a woman to contact her through Facebook to tell her that her brother had adopted a boy that matched her description except that he was born in December 1993 and not 1994.

Miss Mauer typed in the last name of the adoptive family and what she saw has convinced her that she has found her brother: his photo, the blue eyes and the middle name of Luke.

'I literally almost passed out,' she said.



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It's a hoax story. How in the heck does she know that he has two "wonderful" fathers? Like those two wonderful fathers shown on the dailymail who were sexually abusing their adopted "son"? This is done to boost the same sex argument to show they can raise mentally stable and "normal" children. Nature intended it one way for a reason. It's the best way .

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Because all us same sex couples don't abuse our children as well, we are too perfect for that. O wait, never mind. Baby P's parents were heterosexual, along with millions of other hetero couples out there who don't deserve the miracles from God that they have. Same sex couples can be darn good parents! Anyone who thinks otherwise is just kidding themselves. To say that they raise mentally unstable children is offensive, and just as bad as all the hubbub about single parents raising mentally disturbed children. It's down to the persons character, not who they love which dictates the type of parent they are.

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DM, you shouldn't mirror an image when the person has identifiable marks - like lip rings.

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Follow up story, please.

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HOPE HE HASN'T BEEN "DAMAGED" BEING BROUGHT UP BY TWO MEN WITH NO WOMAN'S NURTURING INFLUENCE

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That comment is so idiotic.

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Such a wonderful story.

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Good Story. Sometimes Social sites like Facebook are a good tool to find people...

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Nice story. This is the sad reality of siblings in protective care. They get separated and lose contact. Good for her for finding her brother. btw, wrong use of the word "literally".

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That's so wonderful that she was able to locate her brother. I wish them the best.

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Such a sweet story. I am so happy for her. I can only imagine what it must be like to be separated from your own brother like that. Congratulations, Julia! I wish only the best for both of you. And kudos to the Facebook users who helped her find her brother.

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So what about the youngest sister? No word on her? And why would a family ever be split up like that by CPS?

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It could be that the younger sister might be too young to legally be allowed to search for her. She might only be around thirteen to sixteen years old.

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Thanks, but I didn't really need your "2cents". It is NOT naive to think they shouldn't do this whether it happens or not. Btw, my mother worked with DCF for many years. Not duh it happens and it is wrong.

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