Two South Carolina women have spent nearly 60 years looking for their brother, and, with the help of social media, they finally found him in Florida.
Robert Barwick was separated from his family by social services at just 1 year old. He is deaf and can't speak.
The sisters took a picture of themselves holding a poster that described their brother. The picture was posted to Facebook with a caption that pleaded for people to share it. The post, shared over 260,000 times, help bring the search to a end.
"Within five days of posting it, I got to speak to my uncle for the first time," Barwick's niece Amy Sciotti told WPEC.
A forensic investigator saw the Facebook post and alerted the West Palm Beach Police Department who put Barwick in touch with his long-lost family.
“We were able to establish that he was indeed the individual that they were looking for,” detective James Louis told WPEC.
Barwick has already received letters from loved ones.
Detective James Louis told our partners at WPTV about Barwick's reaction, saying: "The one thing he wrote to me is that I thought I was alone. He was just so happy to know that he actually had people ... that actually loved him."
Barwick has two children, and the rest of the family is planning to meet him sometime next week.
