22 Years After This Marine Was Dumped In The Trash As A Baby, He Was Reunited With His Rescuer

22 years after this Marine was dumped in the trash as a baby. He was reunited with his rescuer Troy Sowers doesn't have much experience on the ground He only graduated from the FBI Academy about eight weeks ago But when he gets the call that a two-day-old infant named Stuart Rembrandt has been kidnapped He embarks on solving his first major case and by the end of that day back in 1997 he has the little one safe in his arms a happy ending for both the new FBI agent and the distraught family But who could have foretold back then that their paths might cross again more than 20 years on? Fast forward 22 years and Sowers has spent his career climbing the ladder with the FBI He became the field officer in charge of the Bureau's Knoxville office through it Although one case had always stayed with him that baby boy. He found by a dumpster one fateful day in 1997 and yet so far removed from the case that kick-started his career Sowers had no idea with whom he'd crossed paths in 2019 He wouldn't initially recognize the little one that he'd saved after all he'd spent 22 years growing up and living his life But Sowers and Rembrandt did find each other again for a poignant and emotional reunion Troy Sowers comes from a multi-faceted background both educationally and professionally speaking He earned bachelor's degrees in theology and accounting and worked in an accounting firm as an auditor But Sowers also signed up with the US Air Force serving for four years Sowers also studied at the Naval Postgraduate School where he received a master's degree in Homeland Security Studies This training pointed him toward what would become his lifelong career He entered into the FBI Academy from which he graduated in August 1997 Sowers first post would be at the Seattle field office More specifically Sowers ended up as a field agent in the Tacoma resident agency with a focus on among other things white-collar crime violent crime and terrorism This beat brought him one of his first big cases just two months after he got the job The abduction of a two-day-old baby named Stuart Rembrandt in August 1997 Melinda Cohen gave birth to her son Stuart at st. Clair Hospital located south of Tacoma Just hours after bringing the baby into the world Cohen told TV station KIRO 7 that a woman came into a room around 1 30 a.m Identifying herself as a nursery nurse and wearing a white lab coat Hospital employees noticed the new doctor on the floor that night, too But she said she worked as an army medic and that she'd been paged requesting her attendance When the white coat clad woman reached the obstetrics unit She reiterated her fake persona and staff let her in The woman claiming to be a doctor then entered Cohen's room and told the new mom that she would take Rembrandt off her hands Cohen recalled she said she was the nursery nurse and they were going to take Rembrandt to the nursery so I could get some sleep The woman then placed the newborn in a mobile cradle and wheeled him away Within 90 minutes hospital workers realized something terrible had happened. They found the empty cradle discarded by one of st Claire's exits soon They'd realized that baby Rembrandt had been the one who disappeared and police issued an artist's impression of the mysterious doctor Who appeared to have taken him? The next day a nearby shop worker stopped a woman who had come into the store with an infant as well as two girls He suspected her of stealing but he had to let her go because he couldn't prove it Later on another staffer realized that the suspected thief might have already taken something infinitely more precious the day before The employee had seen the police sketch of Rembrandt's kidnapper and realized that she'd come into the shop with the baby in tow He knew it was the wanted woman from a very particular facial feature He later said she smiled at me and I recognized the jagged teeth Luckily after the alleged shoplifting incident the employee who temporarily detained the woman had recorded what her vehicle looked like He shared the news with the authorities and within hours. They spotted the car and the suspected kidnapper But 30 year old Kimberly Skrzewski didn't have a newborn baby in her charge by the time cops found her In fact Skrzewski initially denied taking Rembrandt from her mother's hospital room It would be her daughter perhaps one of the two with her at the store who would tell police the truth The 13 year old cracked during questioning and told cops that her mother had indeed snatched the newborn baby The teenager revealed that Skrzewski had come home with a newborn The tale the mom told her little ones was that she'd purchased the baby boy for $500 But when Skrzewski realized that the story had made the news she lost her nerve and left the helpless baby behind a store beside a trash bin Backed into a corner Skrzewski eventually told investigators where she'd left newborn Rembrandt The tiny baby had been left in a cardboard box Ditched next to the waste receptacle Skrzewski also revealed the reason why she'd taken the two-day old boy in the first place in her guilty Please Skrzewski said that she'd snatched Rembrandt because she could no longer bear children However, she thought a baby would be the only way she could save her marriage her desperation led her to kidnap the newborn Still she claimed that she hadn't pre-planned the crime Prosecutors saw things differently though They argued the detailed approach to abducting Rembrandt proved that Skrzewski had thought through every step in advance With this in mind the state's legal team requested an exceptional sentence of 10 years for Skrzewski's wrongdoings To which the court eventually agreed as a fledgling FBI agent in the Tacoma area Sowers played a big part in finding Rembrandt safe and sound in fact He played a pivotal role in ensuring the newborn swift return to his parents Firstly he'd helped convince Skrzewski to tell authorities where she left the defenseless, baby Still Sowers recalled in 2019 that learning Rembrandt's location hadn't fully eased his mind He worried that the newborn wouldn't be alive when they reached him as Sowers recalled the TV station NBC News in August 2019 We knew he'd been out there for several hours when I picked him up He was not crying, but the two-day old Rembrandt gave Sowers a sign that he was Okay, the FBI agent described he just nuzzled right into my neck and I knew he was fine It wouldn't have been that way without his and the rest of the Bureau's work Sowers told the Knoxville News Sentinel newspaper in August 2019 his chances of survival would have been pretty slim if we hadn't found him that Night for Sowers the rescue hit home. His daughter was young at the time, too He told Armed Forces News website military.com in August 2019 This is what I came to the FBI for to do good things like this We'd found him he was alive. He was going to be returned to his parents It doesn't get any better than this Sowers went on to say working a kidnapping case in the FBI is the quintessential thing that people think about the FBI When you find the victim and the victim still alive It's a great day and one of the senior agents knew that according to NBC News Someone pulled Sowers aside to say you'll never do anything better than that Sowers may not have realized that when medical crews arrived to take Rembrandt from Sowers arms and back to his parents But the FBI agent never forgot the case. He solved so early in his career In fact, he always wondered what happened to Rembrandt. He'd always assumed he'd never see the boy again Going forward the case also helped inspire new methods for securing hospitals and their maternity wards Rembrandt told KIRO 7 from what I've told my parents they did develop a new type of bracelet that newborn babies wear that alerts hospital staff when a baby's been removed and Thanks to Sowers Rembrandt had the chance to grow up and live a fruitful life Despite his dramatic start to life Afterwards Rembrandt didn't dedicate much time to thinking about his kidnapping It had been a devastation ordeal for his parents, but he of course had been blissfully unaware of the incident He told KIRO 7 I lived a relatively normal life. So I don't really have any reason to dwell on the past Interestingly Rembrandt had taken a similar path to that of Sowers the man who'd saved his life Sowers early career had seen him enlist in the USAF for four years in a strange parallel by 2019 a 21 year old Rembrandt had become a corporal in the Marines taking a post at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina For Rembrandt a career in the military made sense His father John had served in the Navy his sister had served in the Air Force and his brother had joined the Marines Too as Rembrandt told military.com. It was only natural I grew up loving hearing about everything the military did in the 22 years since he rescued the future Marine Sowers career had evolved to after working for the FBI's Tacoma resident agency for eight years He earned a promotion to the counterterrorism division. This change brought him across the country to work at FBI headquarters situated in Washington, DC Three years later Sowers once again headed west this time to the Sacramento field office in his, California post He oversaw the International Terrorism Squad Then he ascended to the role of assistant special agent taking charge of intelligence programs and in 2018 Sowers took the helm of the Knoxville field office where he ended his career as the special agent in charge Through it all though Sowers always remembered Rembrandt and the kidnapping case at the start of his career His colleagues got wind of the story when Sowers mentioned it in a work meeting He told military.com in one of my final supervisors meetings I commented that I felt like I've had a pretty solid career in the first couple of months I pulled a baby out of a Box with that Sowers co-workers FBI agents Remember got to work in finding the person who he had saved in 1997 It didn't take long to locate Rembrandt through Facebook and the agents decided to include his tail and Sowers retirement party The veteran agent told NBC News. I really didn't see it coming In fact, according to the FBI's website Sowers had only anticipated a retirement celebration over doughnuts and coffee but as it turned out his colleagues had called up Rembrandt and asked him to come to the party to a Request that had surprised the young corporal to say the least remember told Knox news. I was concerned Why is the FBI talking to me? I'm in the middle of a field op in Camp Lejeune But he agreed to attend Sowers retirement party and in accepting the invitation Rembrandt found himself contemplating what the FBI agent had actually done for him as Rembrandt told NBC News in August 2019. He owed Sowers a big debt of gratitude He said it's crazy to think that without his efforts. I wouldn't even be here today I wouldn't be a Marine. My family wouldn't be the same. I'm just super excited and honored to meet this man today So Rembrandt waited in the wings as the retirement party for Sowers began Inside someone told the story of how a then new FBI agent had discovered the kidnapped newborn Before an updated photo of Rembrandt appeared on the screen. The image helped Sowers realize what was actually happening Sowers told military.com. I had a few seconds to tell myself. Did they actually bring him here in person? With that Rembrandt walked into the party and the room broke out into applause Sowers admitted that the sight of the Marine had made him emotional and he only had a moment to pull himself together Sowers said when I saw him I had to pause a couple seconds to keep my composure He reached out to Rembrandt and shook his hand, but that greeting didn't suit the Marine Instead in a clip of the reunion from NBC News. He told Sowers my parents wanted me to give you a hug Afterwards Sowers described the moment as probably one of the best surprises I've ever had He also told military.com that the reunion had served as an ideal send-off after more than two decades of service The FBI agent said it's a wonderful way to leave the bureau Sowers also appreciated seeing the good Rembrandt is doing through his career with the Marines He advised that the young corporal keep it up in a video of the reunion from NBC News and his tip could apply to Anyone who's experienced an act of kindness. He said I'm glad to see what you've done with your life pass it on