They Always Thought They Were Brothers, Until This…

Can you imagine if someone told you that the person you’d grown up with and believed to be your sibling for years and years actually had no connection with you and that your real brother or sister was far away? It’s a scary and crazy thing to think about, and it sounds more like the plot of a film or soap opera TV show than a real-life incident. However, these kinds of incredible scenarios do occur in the real world from time to time, and this story is one of the most dramatic examples of them all.

Two Brothers with a Perfectly Normal Life

There’s a special bond that exists between siblings. And many people say that an even more special bond exists between twins. William and Wilber Cañas Velasco grew up believing that they were twins and sharing that special bond. They were two seemingly normal brothers with a seemingly normal life.

The two boys grew up in the countryside of Colombia. They enjoyed a rural and peaceful upbringing, far from the big city of Bogota. Little did they know that another pair of boys were growing up with a very special connection to both William and Wilber in the big city.

An Incredible Story Was About to Unfold

You might have heard about the idea of twins being split up at birth and discovering each other years later. We’ve even seen the idea on the big screen in movies like The Parent Trap, for example. Well, this story may have a few things in common with that idea.

But in reality, it’s a totally unique tale, with more twists and turns than you might imagine! And it took a long list of coincidences and chance happenings for these two sets of separated twins to be reunited finally. This is the tale of not only William and Wilber but also Carlos and Jorge.

Another Set of Supposed Twins

In the big city of Bogota, the capital of Colombia lived Carlos Alberto and Jorge Enrique Bernal Castro. Like William and Wilber, Carlos and Jorge had been raised to believe that they were fraternal twins.

As they got older, some major physical differences started to appear between them, but the boys shrugged it off, believing that they’d just inherited different genes from their parents. They could never have imagined the truth behind those physical differences that set them apart from each other.

Fate Was About to Bring These Boys Together

So, out in the countryside of Colombia, we had William and Wilber. And in the big city, there was Carlos and Jorge. Both of these sets of boys had grown up being told that they were twins. They’d all noticed a few physical differences but never really worried too much about them.

None of the boys could have imagined that they had a secret, special connection with another set of “twins” living so far away. But fate has a funny way of bringing people together, and it was about to bring the boys together, thanks to a few lucky coincidences.

It All Began in a Grocery Store

It was the summer of 2013, and a lady named Janeth Paez was out in Bogota to do some shopping. She called in at a local grocery store to grab some food. It was a store she knew well and visited often, and she was very familiar with the young man who worked behind the counter named William.

William was Janeth’s friend, and they often chatted when she stopped by. So, on that day, just like all the other times she’d been in the store, Janeth expected to see William and say hello to him.

A Friend with Benefits

William was a good friend to Janeth, and since he was an employee of the store, he also sometimes allowed her to use his employee discount to get some better prices and big savings on the groceries she needed to buy. It was a great way for her to save some cash each week.

So, on that day, Janeth went over to the meat counter to see William and ask if she could get a discount on some ribs. When she arrived, William was there, as usual, busy cutting up some pieces of meat and working hard.

A Case of Mistaken Identity

Janeth wasn’t the only one in that grocery store. Her friend, Laura, had accompanied her and followed her over to the meat counter. And, just like Janeth, Laura felt that she recognized the man behind the counter. There was just one little problem.

To Laura, the man working at the meat counter was called “Jorge,” not William. Laura was sure that she knew him, as he worked with her at an engineering company. The man looked so familiar, and Laura couldn’t stay silent, she had to say something about it and see what her colleague Jorge was doing in such a place.

“Jorge” Didn’t Respond to Laura

Since she knew the man behind the meat counter, Laura walked over and smiled at him. She waved in his direction as a greeting, expecting him to notice her so that they could talk.

She wanted to find out what he was doing working at a grocery store when he already had a job at the engineering firm. However, the man she knew as “Jorge” gave no response to her wave. He didn’t seem to recognize her at all and simply carried on with his work

Janeth Was Completely Confused

“Jorge” seemingly had no idea who Laura was, and her friend, Janeth, was very confused by Laura’s reaction, too. She said that the man’s name was William and that he’d been working at the grocery store for a very long time. Laura disagreed, exclaiming, “That’s Jorge! He works at my office!”

The two friends continued to disagree with one another, but one thing was clear: there was something very strange about this situation. They needed to find out what was going on and get to the bottom of this bizarre mystery once and for all.

Both Women Thought They Were Right

Both Laura and Janeth thought that they were right about the man behind the counter. Janeth was sure that it was William and she’d seen him many times before, but Laura kept disagreeing, saying, “No, it’s Jorge, I know him!”

Something wasn’t adding up in this situation. It was clear that both of them couldn’t be correct unless the man behind the counter had some kind of double identity. Fortunately, the man himself was about to put an end to their arguments as he stepped out and revealed once and for all who he was.

A Hug Solves the Mystery

The man behind the counter stepped forward towards the woman. Laura expected him to say hello to her and explain himself, while Janeth was sure he’d say hello to her and confirm that he was William all along. So, what happened next?

Well, the man did indeed approach Janeth. He reached out his arms and hugged her, confirming that he was William all along. Laura was completely blown away. The man looked exactly like Jorge from her work, and she was sure that he was secretly hiding his identity for some unknown reason.

Laura Didn’t Let It Go

Some people might have just admitted that they made a mistake and moved on, but Laura was adamant. She just couldn’t let it go. The guy she’d seen in the store looked too much like Jorge; he had the same height, the same face, the same bone structure.

In Laura’s view, the man had to be Jorge. It was impossible to imagine anything different. And she didn’t want to simply forget about it and carry on as nothing had happened. She vowed to get to the bottom of the mystery and continued to think about it long after she left the store.

She Planned to Confront Jorge

Laura carried on thinking about the man behind the meat counter long into the night. She couldn’t do anything about it right away, but she decided to make a plan to figure things out. Her plan was simple: the next day, she planned to go to work, find Jorge, and speak to him directly.

After all, she needed to know what was going on and find out if that man in the grocery store was him. So, with her plan prepared, she went to bed, eager for the next day to arrive.

Laura Puts Her Plan Into Action

The next day came, and Laura put her plan into action. As soon as she got a chance, she tracked down Jorge and told him all about what had happened. She demanded to know if it was him she’d seen in the shop or if he had some secret twin brother named William that he hadn’t told her about.

Jorge simply laughed at the story, not taking it too seriously. He told Laura that he did have a twin brother, but his name was Carlos, and the two of them didn’t have much physical resemblance, so it was unlikely that this “William” had any connection to them.

The Story Could Have Ended There

It seemed like the story might have ended right there. Jorge had laughed off the whole thing, Laura had no real answer to what had happened, and there didn’t seem to be any more to do about it.

Jorge wasn’t interested in going down to some random grocery store to see a guy who looked like him, and Laura didn’t want to push the situation any further. So the whole thing was forgotten about. Fortunately, some more coincidences were about to occur that would change everything.

Janeth Joins the Firm

A little while later, Janeth joined the engineering company where Jorge and Laura worked. She became a part of the team, and that was when she actually saw Jorge for the first time. Then, she finally realized why Laura had been so insistent.

Janeth could immediately see the physical resemblance between William and Jorge. In fact, the two of them looked almost identical. She finally understood Laura’s point of view, and she wanted to do something about it. She didn’t know Jorge too well yet, but she decided to approach him.

Janeth Makes a Plan

Janeth had only recently joined the company, so she didn’t know Jorge very well and hadn’t built up a bond or connection with him. She knew she couldn’t just walk up and ask if he had a secret twin or if he would come with her to some grocery store. But she still wanted answers.

So, she took a photo of Jorge and presented it to William at the grocery store. She expected William to be shocked at the sight of his doppelganger, but William didn’t seem too interested. He simply smiled and shrugged the whole thing off like it was no big deal.

Jorge Had a Different Reaction

A little while later, Janeth moved on. She left the engineering company and never really got a chance to speak with Jorge or develop a friendship. However, she still thought about the strange similarity between him and William.

So, a few months after leaving the office, she snapped a picture of William and texted it over to Laura. Laura then showed it to Jorge. Unlike William, Jorge was completely shocked by the sight of someone who looked just like him. He could barely believe his eyes.

He Thought He Was Looking at Himself

Jorge cried out, “That’s me!” when he saw the photo Laura was showing him. He truly thought that the man in the photograph was himself. He couldn’t believe it. The man had the same face, expression, and bone structure.

He stopped work right away and sat down with Laura, demanding to know what was happening. Laura started at the beginning, telling the whole story of William and the grocery store. At that point, all of the puzzles of this strange puzzles started to fall into place, and William got closer to the truth.

The Truth Was Revealed

After Laura told Jorge what was going on, he decided to do something about it. He tracked down Jorge and met Carlos, and introduced the pair to his own “twin brother,” Wilber. Soon, the four young men were united, together, at last, ready to discover what had happened.

It turned out that William and Jorge were a real set of twins, and Carlos and Wilber were also twins. The two sets of twins had been born in the same hospital, and a nurse had accidentally mixed them up, sending the wrong pairs home with each set of parents.

New Brothers and New Friends

It could have been quite an awkward situation for the young men. Some outside observers worried that they might struggle to adapt to this new reality or might not form bonds with one another. Thankfully, that’s not what happened.

Instead of acting like two separate sets of twins or individuals, all four young men bonded together immediately. They became firm friends and started hanging out together as a group, feeling like they were all one big happy family.

The Story Went Viral

Some local news crews learned about the story and visited the four boys to interview them, and not long after that, the story spread internationally. The whole world was reading about Jorge, Carlos, William, and Wilber.

The four young men became international stars in a matter of days, with their lives turned upside down. They couldn’t believe what had happened, and they knew it would take some time to settle down and accept everything, but they were ready to embrace the future together, as friends and brothers, united at last.

An Even More Unlikely Story

The tale of William, Wilber, Carlos, and Jorge was an astonishing one. But it’s not the only story of its kind. Many other very unlikely but true stories have been of twins and siblings being accidentally separated at birth.

A pair of young men named Bobby and Eddy were involved in one such story, eventually discovering that a simple mistake at the hospital had changed their lives in ways they could never have imagined. Once again, a few lucky coincidences led them to the truth.

An Unexpected Encounter

Two curly-haired boys named Bobby and Eddy went through a similar thing to the twins in Colombia. They both grew up and lived their own separate, independent lives, totally unaware of each other’s existence.

Then, one day, they were both at SUNY Sullivan College campus, and both kept being called by names that weren’t their own. Bobby was hearing people call him Eddy, and Eddy was being called Bobby. They knew that something strange was going on, but they had no idea what fate had in store for them.

“You Have A Twin”

As Bobby and Eddy carried on going about their everyday lives, they kept hearing from other people, “You have a twin!” and people kept bringing up this other person who looked just like the other one. It was bizarre.

Both Bobby and Eddy became more and more curious as time went by. They decided that they needed to meet up. Bobby needed to meet Eddy, and Eddy needed to meet Bobby, and the pair needed to solve this strange mystery once and for all.

A Memorable Meeting

There was only one way to solve the situation and figure out what was happening: Bobby and Eddy needed to meet up. So, they figured out where the other one was and arranged a meeting. To make the situation even more memorable and dramatic, they decided to wear the same clothes.

Then, one of them waited in his dorm while the other made his way across campus to see him. Suddenly, these two identical young men, who had been separated for so long, were only feet away from each other, with just a single door keeping them apart. Their meeting was finally about to happen.

Like Looking in a Mirror

The door opened up, and Bobby and Eddy saw each other for the very first time. They couldn’t believe their eyes. It was like they were both looking into a mirror. The person in front of them seemed like an exact copy of themselves.

But neither of them had ever known that they had a secret twin, living a separate life for all those years. This was the first day of the rest of their lives, and Bobby and Eddy were excited to begin, with no idea of the twists and turns that still lay ahead of them.

Local Media Takes an Interest

Bobby and Eddy sat down and talked about their lives. They both wanted to know how they had been kept apart for 19 whole years. It turned out that both of them had been adopted by different families, and they concluded that they were long-lost brothers, separated as infants.

Local newspapers caught wind of the story and visited the campus to see Eddy and Bobby in person, writing a story about them that gained traction and made headlines all over the US. Eventually, the story caught the attention of another 19-year-old boy with a special connection to Eddy and Bobby.

A Third Brother Was Revealed

A woman named Ms. Kellman picked up a paper one day and saw a story about Eddy and Bobby, two twin boys who had found each other after being separated. She was instantly shocked by the photo in the paper because the boys looked like her own adopted son, David.

She showed David the photo, and he couldn’t believe it. It turned out that he was the third member of the group! Eddy, Bobby, and David were triplets who had been separated into three different families. This made the newspapers go even crazier, and the story spread all over the globe.

Breaking into Show Business

The three young men were getting a lot of attention and having their lives turned upside down, and they loved every minute of it! They were so happy to suddenly have two new brothers and best friends to talk to and share things with.

Plus, the media attention helped the triplets launch their show-biz career. They started appearing on all kinds of talk shows, such as the Phil Donahue Show. They even made a cameo appearance in the movie Desperately Seeking Susan, appearing alongside Madonna herself.

Completely Different Upbringings

The three boys revealed more details of their own stories on talk shows, astounding audiences with the fascinating tale of how they’d been separated and come back together. They also revealed that they each had a very different kind of upbringing.

A blue-collar family had raised one, a middle-class family had raised another, and the third was raised by very wealthy adoptive parents. Yet, despite these different lifestyles, the three boys seemed to have tons in common, with identical personalities, tastes, and mannerisms.

Sharing Success After Success

The three young men formed a great bond with one another, and that bond grew into shared success as they decided to stick together and go into business as a trio. They moved into a shared apartment and started up their steakhouse restaurant, “Triplets.”

The restaurant was a big hit, with people coming from far and wide to dine at the steakhouse and see the three boys in person after watching them on TV so many times before. However, behind the scenes, tensions were starting to form, and it was becoming difficult for one brother, in particular, to cope.

Promises Were Being Broken

When the triplets first burst onto the scene, the media made them all kinds of promises and made them believe that the future would be bright and problem-free. However, as time went on, those promises started to be broken.

This caused a lot of disappointment to the brothers, and their mental health was starting to suffer as a result. They’d all been through a huge, life-changing event, and the pressure of that big change was starting to weigh on them all, affecting their bond and damaging their relationships.

The Trio Struggled On

At first, everything seemed great for Bobby, David, and Eddy. They’d each found two new brothers to hang out with who would be there for them and wanted to share everything with them. Plus, they all had so much in common and got along so well.

Unfortunately, as time went on, the bonds between the three started to break down. They struggled valiantly with their business and tried to keep up appearances in public. Still, they were all started to recognize the differences between them and struggled with their demons on the inside.

One Brother Was Struggling

The bonds between Eddy, Bobby, and David were breaking down. In the meantime, the adoptive parents of each of the three boys had gotten in touch with one another and were working on trying and finding out what had happened and how each boy had ended up in a different family, with no knowledge of his siblings.

They would soon discover some shocking information, but before that big discovery, some more tragic and terrible news was about to hit the whole family. Nobody could have predicted what would happen next, and many hearts were about to be broken by an unbelievable event.

Eddy Took His Own Life

Eddy, the brother who had struggled the most with mental health issues and personal problems, committed suicide. The brothers knew that Eddy was suffering, but they never imagined that he’d take his own life. The whole family was thrust into a state of grief.

The event hit David and Bobby particularly hard, as the two boys had already spent so much of their lives without Eddy, and now, they knew they had to face the rest of their lives without him once again. And some more unbelievable news was about to arrive, courtesy of journalist Lawrence Wright.

A Disturbing Revelation

Lawrence Wright is a writer and journalist who has won a Pulitzer Prize for his work and took an interest in the story of Bobby, Eddy, and David. He decided to use his journalist abilities and research skills to figure out what had happened back at the beginning of the triplets’ story.

He published an article, sharing his findings and detailing the brutal truth. It turned out that the three boys had been part of a disturbing psychological study about “nature versus nurture”; researchers wanted to find out more about how children were raised and had used the triplets as guinea pigs.

The Nature Versus Nurture Debate

In the world of child psychology, the idea of “nature versus nurture” is a long-standing debate. It revolves around the idea of how people become the way they are. Some scientists argue that people are born a certain way and destined to have certain traits and characteristics based on genetics (nature).

Others argue that how children are raised, the environment around them, and the methods of parenting they are exposed to are the main factors in shaping them as people (nurture). One man, Dr. Peter Neubauer, was ready to do anything to end the debate and get an answer finally.

The Doctor Planned an Experiment

Dr. Neubauer and his fellow researchers at the Child Development Center came up with the idea for an experiment. They wanted to separate a group of twins or triplets, place them in different families and situations, and see how they changed as they grew up.

To check on the children, experts would be sent out to their homes to observe them. Eddy, Bobby, and David all remembered having a doctor come and watch them at their homes throughout their childhoods, but they and their parents never knew the true reason. The researchers had lied to everyone to cover up their true intentions.

Finally Knowing the Truth

Bobby and David read through the article from Lawrence Wright and learned all about the truth of their upbringing. They realized that they had unwittingly been a part of a cruel experiment, and they were both furious and upset to have been treated in that way.

Both of them felt used, and even though they had managed to succeed in life and find each other, they felt damaged, like a part of them had been taken away and could never come back. They blamed the researchers for their pain, and they knew they’d have difficulty trusting people ever again.

A Filmmaker Approached the Boys

A British filmmaker and documentarian named Tim Wardle had heard about the story of the triplets. They wanted to make a documentary about them, but he knew he needed to speak with Bobby and David first to get them to agree. And that wasn’t going to be easy.

The two men had been hurt time and time again, with broken promises and damaged trust. They were both suspicious of Wardle and worried that he was just someone else who wanted to take advantage of them. But Wardle was patient and understanding; he spent time with the two men to get to know them and prove that he could be trusted.

It Took Four Years

Wardle was very patient. He spent four whole years working with Bobby and David and trying to convince them to let him make his documentary. He wanted to share their story, and he’d stop at nothing to get their blessing. So, in the end, they both agreed.

Bobby and David didn’t agree to the documentary because they wanted to be famous again, or for the money. They’d both already experienced the highs and lows of the entertainment industry. All they wanted was a chance to share their true, full story with the world at last.

A Big Risk Pays Off

It took courage for Bobby and David to agree to the documentary. They’d both been through so much, and both of them wanted to carry on living their own quiet lives with their new families. It was hard for them to revisit the past and talk about everything, especially regarding Eddy.

However, they went through with it, and the risk paid off. The documentary turned out to be a huge success after being shown at the Sundance Film Festival. And it helped Bobby and David finally find some peace and obtain some closure after all they had endured.

Bobby And David Could Finally Move On

In many ways, the documentary felt like a closing point to the whole story for Bobby and David. After sitting and watching the premiere at the film festival, they both felt more at peace with what had happened and more ready to move on with their lives.

They were also touched by the reaction of the people around them. Several audience members walked over to say sorry to the pair for everything they had been through, with some even hugging the brothers and wishing them well for the future.

Focusing on the Bright Side

From that point on, Bobby and David decided to focus on the bright side of life. They could have carried on being sad, angry, and upset. They could have tried to get revenge against the researchers and held grudges against them. But, instead, they decided to follow a more peaceful path.

They accepted and acknowledged what had happened to them and made a choice to move on. They won’t forget the hard times, but they both know that there can be many more happy times ahead with each other and their own families.