Growing up, Vic Svec knew his father鈥檚 origin story as a ripped-from-the-headlines mystery 鈥� one that would probably never be solved.
When Joseph Svec was an infant, back in 1934, a woman named Clara Bradley told Baltimore police she鈥檇 found him abandoned on that city鈥檚 Charles Street viaduct. Bradley said a woman had approached her and asked for directions to a local orphanage before speeding off in a car with D.C. plates. Maybe it was the D.C. woman who鈥檇 left her newborn behind.
Joseph Svec was taken to an orphanage, then adopted by a local couple. His birth mother never did turn up. The Baltimore Evening Sun carried a story about the search, and Joseph Svec preserved it in a scrapbook. But he never seemed to wonder about his biological parents.
His son, Vic, did. So when Vic鈥檚 wife gave the Belleville businessman a 23andMe test kit last Christmas, he used it. After his daughter Stephanie Mueller helped him make sense of the results, a combination of DNA and social media sleuthing, he finally had his answer. It wasn鈥檛 just an explanation of the family鈥檚 lineage 鈥� but a remarkable story that Vic Svec never saw coming.
The Baltimore Sun did , one . And on today鈥檚 St. Louis on the Air, Vic Svec shared how his family made sense of the DNA findings and ultimately made contact with his father鈥檚 biological relatives.
Clara Bradley, as it turns out, was almost certainly baby Joseph鈥檚 grandmother. The woman who claimed to have found the baby instead apparently traveled to Baltimore from her suburban home to see the baby was placed in an orphanage.
The baby鈥檚 mother, Mary Elizabeth Bradley, was 21 and unmarried at the time 鈥� the only girl in a family with 10 children.
For Svec, the story offers 鈥渢he satisfaction of a puzzle solved.鈥�
鈥淲e all go through the drab days of a pandemic and other concerns,鈥� he said. 鈥淪ome people pay good money for an escape room. We had a five-month puzzle going on that was ultimately solved. That was extremely satisfying and a conclusion that was far more rewarding than anything we could have imagined going into it.
鈥淲e certainly didn鈥檛 think a cold case would get warmer after 86 years,鈥� he added. 鈥淏ut thanks to technology and people, we were able to bring it together in a really enjoyable way.鈥�
Still, the resolution is only partial. Mary Elizabeth Bradley died long before Vic Svec discovered the connection and apparently took her secret of the baby her family gave away to the grave. So in solving one mystery, Svec acknowledged, he鈥檚 created another one for Bradley鈥檚 relatives.
One of them is Clara Valeck. The 79-year-old Michigan resident is Clara Bradley鈥檚 granddaughter and namesake, and as such is the niece of Mary Elizabeth, the birth mother. Valeck is now in contact with Svec and his family and hopes to be able to meet them in person one day.
But for now, she is filled with questions.
鈥淚 wish I knew who the dad was,鈥� Valeck said. 鈥淚 wish I knew why my grandmother and her other children felt it necessary to keep a secret. Why did they go to all the trouble to make up [the story about the car with the D.C. plates], which in my mind is such a fabricated story?鈥�
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know,鈥� she added, 鈥渋f it was just the times.鈥�
鈥�鈥� brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is hosted by and produced by , , and . The audio engineer is .
