Stolen at birth in Chile: How a Houston firefighter is helping families connect the dots

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A Houston firefighter stolen at birth and given up for adoption in Chile is helping other unknowing adoptees find their biological families.

Tyler Graf is the founder of Connecting Roots, which is an organization that aims to help the thousands of now adults who were taken from their families as babies and trafficked around the world under the power of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

In an interview only on 13, an Odessa firefighter named David Avary talked about all the mixed feelings he's having as final steps are being made to confirm who his biological family is in Chile. This week, his potential biological mother's DNA arrived in Houston from Chile to be sent off for testing.

"I've lived my life knowing I'm adopted. Here's paperwork to prove I'm adopted, and now that some of that is not real, I kind of looked at it from a moment of like, my whole life is not real. It's been falsified," Avary said.

Avary has always known he was adopted from Chile, but what he and his adoptive mother didn't know is that he was put up for adoption illegally.

His adopted mother saw Tyler Graf's story and wondered if her son was one of the thousands stolen from Chile during the 1980s.

Graf's team went on a mission to find out, and that's when they realized discrepancies in Avary's adoption after looking up his root number, which is like a Social Security number in Chile. They were able to find out he was put up for adoption illegally because his number still exists. He's still a citizen and the number shows he never died or left the country.

"It's like you're excited at one point, and then at the same time, you're worried and you have hundreds of questions to ask. A bunch of whys," Avary said.

So many whys and hows: it's the questions that Graf, the Connecting Roots founder and fellow adoptee, has also been trying to work through.

It's been a year since he was able to find his biological family after starting the search for answers in 2012 with the help of firefighters in Chile and organizations overseas.

A humanitarian nonprofit organization found documents that linked Graf with his biological mother, and DNA testing confirmed the match.

"I'll tell you what, it never gets easier. I feel that when I started this foundation, I didn't quite fully heal, but it gave me a purpose. Every time we do a (reunion) like this, it opens up a wound, but every time that hole gets smaller," Graf said.

Chilean firefighter Ivan Rain, who came to Houston for firefighter training, was tasked to carry Avary's potential biological mother's DNA in his suitcase all the way from Chile to help get him some much-needed answers.

"He actually gets to be a part of his own search. He gets to receive that last puzzle piece in his hand, and he's in control," Graf said.

It's a journey Avary says he wouldn't have been able to get through without the support of Tyler, who now holds with Avary a brotherhood deeper than a thin red line from their chosen career paths.

"You're Chilean! I'm Chilean," Avary said to Graf.

Connecting Roots tells ABC13 that Avary should have concrete answers on if they have a match in less than two weeks after it's sent off to the My Heritage company for testing.

Graf says right now, they're 90% sure it's Avary's family, but the DNA test will give them the 100% certainty. If the DNA matches, this will be the 33rd family Graf's team has been able to successfully reunite since launching their nonprofit mission less than a year ago.

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