Local man finds long lost family overseas

ALBANY COUNTY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – David Fruchter and his late wife Susan always wanted a family. David sits with his adult son eating lunch, looking like your average American family, but their journey has been complicated with bittersweet emotions.

A HAPPY FAMILY 

“There was a fertility issue. And that’s why we were looking to adopt,” said David. They met with various adoption support groups in the U.S. until his wife was pointed in a different direction.

“We connected with various adoption support groups and heard about different people’s experiences adopting from foreign countries. And someone suggested Chile to her and there were a number of other people who were adopting from Chile, or had not too long before that, and we decided to pursue that,” said David.

They traveled to South America to bring their adopted son home to Colonie. Ben Fruchter was born in Chillán, Chile in 1988. His adoption was finalized in 1989. By all accounts, Ben had a typical suburban upbringing. 

“We never, from a young age, never hid from Ben the fact that he was adopted and that he was adopted from Chile,” said David.

He graduated from Colonie Central High School but questions about his identity and where he came from cropped up early on. Ben always assumed that his biological family had given him up because they couldn't afford to give him the life they thought he deserved. He was always curious about his roots. 

“It was a little tough, trying to come up with answers for projects on your family history, whereas everyone else seems to just have an answer right off the bat,” said Ben.

As he got older, his curiosity deepened and his desire to unearth his roots grew stronger. So he went digging for answers. He tried finding his biological family on social media and even tried genealogical websites, to no avail. 

“Just kind of put it in the back of my mind and didn’t really think about it, just went on with my day,” said Ben.

It was out of sight, out of mind. But that changed after his adoptive mom Susan passed away and David remarried. It was his new wife who helped Ben get connected to the information he had been seeking his whole life.

CONNECTING ROOTS 

Connecting Roots is a non-profit organization, and its mission is to reunite adoptees with their biological Chilean families. Tyler Graf is the president and CEO of the organization.

“We first heard about it because my wife Amy saw an article online about the stolen children, and it also profiled Tyler and Connecting Roots. We immediately forwarded it to Ben. He reached out to Tyler, and that’s how this got rolling,” said David. 

“I started Connecting Roots in 2021, in December, after I found out about my backstory, and that I was, in fact, kidnapped as well,” said Graf.

He is a Houston firefighter and met a group of Chilean firefighters through training. 

“I had never met a Chilean before in his life. All of a sudden, here is a big group of them, and they’re firefighters and we started talking about my adoption and they asked if I knew anything about Chile or if I speak Spanish or if I knew anything about my biological family. It was all one big resounding, ‘No’,” said Graf.

Graf said he had already dedicated his life to helping others when he joined the Houston Fire Department and finding out about his biological family further galvanized him into action.

“After I found out my backstory, I felt the need to turn all these emotions into something positive, because obviously hanging onto the anger and everything of what happened to myself was not going to be beneficial,” said Graf. He felt he had to use his platform to help others, like Ben. 

After Ben got in touch with Connecting Roots, it only took them two weeks to locate his biological family. Reconnecting families is what Graf prides himself on.

“Everyone is owed that chance to learn about their past but sometimes it just doesn't happen, and after these firefighters helped find my family in Chile, it brings up a lot of emotions for all of us adoptees,” said Graf. “It’s a whirlwind. First off, it’s, ‘How is this even possible?’ There’s denial. There’s happiness. Of course, there’s sadness that this happened and also anger comes out.”

SYSTEMIC REMOVAL OF CHILDREN

As Graf peeled back the layers, he learned his forced adoption was part of atrocities committed by a dictatorship that systematically removed children from their mothers.

“The dictatorship of Pinochet, one of the plans was to eliminate the poor population, or the Indigenous, or the single mothers as well. And part of that was taking the children and getting them out of the country but in doing, so also making some money. And it was an evil plan and it’s hurt a lot of people,” said Graf. 

The atrocities committed by that regime were recognized in June when the President of Chile Gabriel Boric Font gave his 2024 Public Account – the Chilean State of the Union Address.

“We have created an inter-institutional table to address – and this is very serious and little is known—the forced or irregular adoptions that occurred for decades in Chile, from the 60s to the end of the 90s. It is estimated that there may be more than 20,000 people affected, after which there are families who need support to reunite and get to know each other, their own history and identity,” said Boric Font.

TRUTH UNVEILED

David said the adoption seemed legal. “If we had had any inkling that this was not a legitimate adoption, we never would have – for a second – considered it,” said David. 

But as Ben uncovered the complexities of his life’s history, through the help of Connecting Roots, he learned of the suspicious circumstances surrounding his adoption, the heartbreaking backdrop behind his happy family.

While his adoptive family was loving their lives with their son in the Capital District, celebrating holidays and hosting birthday parties, the one who loved him the most – the one who birthed him, who wanted to hold him and care for him – never had the opportunity to.

Ben learned about the lies in government issued documents. The story they gave him and his adoptive parents was far from the truth. The shocking truth? Ben was only a few months old when he was kidnapped and trafficked.

Like Tyler, Ben’s adoption was forced. His biological family never willingly gave him up for adoption. He was only a few months old when he was kidnapped from a hospital in Chile and adopted by a loving, and unsuspecting, Colonie couple. 

“My brother brought me into the hospital one day because I was having respiratory issues and that was the last they saw of me,” said Ben.

He went from being an only child in the U.S. to learning he had seven biological siblings – and a dozen nieces and nephews – in Chile, who had all been searching for him since he was stolen in 1988. He describes the lies the hospital told his birth family.

“I was moved around from ward to ward. They weren’t really given a clear answer,” said Ben.

He connected with his biological family in July 2023 and found out his birth mom, Maria Margarita Vera Vera, suffered through unimaginable pain. She was deeply impacted by his kidnapping.

“Because I was lost, and she obviously had no way of finding me. It kind of led her to drinking, and she, unfortunately, drank herself to death,” said Ben. 

Maria died in 2000, though Ben just learned about her passing last year when he first connected with his biological family over Zoom. 

“From what I was told, they were looking for me after they lost me, and they couldn’t really find me. I guess they were hitting a bunch of dead ends,” said Ben.

But, little did they know, he wasn’t in the country. He wasn’t even on the same continent anymore. He was in a completely different hemisphere – in the Empire State. 

RECONNECTING IN CHILE

Ben wants to learn more about his family, but it’s been difficult because he does not speak Spanish. Nevertheless, Ben said they are relieved to finally be reunited.

He wants to learn more about who his birth mom was, but said he’ll peel back those layers slowly and talk to his family about her when they’re ready – noting it’s still hard for the family to talk about.

“She was worried because of what happened to Ben and what did they do to him? She always had that worry. And later she passed away and took all that worry and sadness with her to the grave,” said Ben’s biological sister Margarita. He was able to witness the traditional ways his family tends to his biological mother’s grave.

“It was definitely good to kind of say, here I’m home. Hopefully, she knows I’m safe now, and we’re all together,” said Ben.

While in Chile, he got familiar with his family and the small town he would have grown up in. He found out the family had been looking for him under his biological name, Gustavo Alfonso Figueroa Vera.

“I learned that they definitely did not stop looking for me,” said Ben. “Whenever social media came to Chile – Facebook and stuff, any new platform they were able to get their hands on – they would look up my Chilean name. Unfortunately, they weren’t going to find anything, cause obviously I don’t go by that.”

When he was in Chile, they played video games on a new arcade game the family bought for his visit. They had a picnic along a beautiful river. And Ben said there were a lot of hugs throughout the week.

Ben, who currently lives in Watervliet, said he’s looking forward to going back to visit his biological family in Chile and creating new, happy memories.

Connecting Roots has been footing the bill to reconnect families. In February, they were able to fund trips for eight adoptees, five of whom met their biological families for the first time, including Ben. Graf said the organization is looking into the potential of legal recourse and wants to work with government agencies to reunify families.