‘Like meeting a clone.’ Florida cop finds a half-brother cop through DNA test.
Boynton Beach police officer Eric Reynolds did what 26 million people did in 2018: He sent his DNA to one of the four major ancestry testing firms.
In this case, Reynolds, who sent in his DNA sample in 2016, opted for 23andMe.
Of that extremely large group of ancestry seekers, Reynolds’ apparently won the DNA lottery.
“As many people purchased consumer DNA tests in 2018 as in all previous years combined,” MIT Technology Review reported in February. Still, plenty did send samples to ancestry search companies three years ago when Reynolds took his shot.
He wanted to know a little bit more about his family, its history and health information. According to the Boynton Beach Police Department, Reynolds found a half-brother because of the test results.
A half-brother who shares the same profession. A half-brother who works about 180 miles and 2 1/2 hours away from Reynolds in Central Florida.
He’s Sgt. David Stull with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
Reynolds and Stull met for the first time at Stull’s house on July 20, the Boynton PD said in a media release.
The meeting was prompted by Reynolds’ reaction to an email he got about a month ago.
“Good morning, my name is David Stull. According to 23andMe, we are half-brothers. I was adopted as an infant and have very little knowledge of my family history, so I have no way of knowing the validity of this.”
Reynolds thought there could be some unknown relatives, Boynton PD said, but all of these similarities? Sounds like a feel-good episode on an old “Oprah Winfrey Show.”
“It was like meeting a clone of me,” Reynolds said in a statement. “It was overwhelming and exciting and bit of sadness at the same time. We’ve been texting all the time. We’re alike in so many ways. I have someone I can talk to, trust as brothers and cops. It feels great.”
Stull was set to meet Reynolds’ family in Boynton Beach Thursday afternoon.
On Friday, the siblings will share their story with fellow officers and friends at the Boynton Beach Police Department.
This story was originally published August 1, 2019 at 4:18 PM.
