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Daily Dispatch
Article followed by the Star Article
Son finds dad, 30 years later
By Shaun Smillie
A nickname, a name of a ship and the longing of a son to meet the father
he never knew. That was all a private investigator had to solve a
30-year-old cold case.
But last week, he closed the case when his client Richard Terwin returned
from Cuba after meeting his dad.
Their reunion was the culmination of a five-year-long search by private
detective Christian Botha, who began the case with very little to go on.
"All Richard had was a nickname, Babis Voreas, and a letter from a
ship's captain allowing Richard's mother to board the ship while it was
in harbour," said Botha.
Voreas had come to East London as a mechanical engineer on board a ship,
just over 30 years ago. While in the coastal town, he met Terwin's
mother. A romance blossomed and she fell pregnant.
But there was a problem.
"He had promised to marry someone in Greece, I think it was sort of
an arranged marriage," Terwin said.
Terwin's father left East London but he wrote letters to his mother until
his son was 2 years old.
At age 18, Terwin began searching for his father, and in 2003 he asked
for a professional's help.
Right from the start, Botha hit dead ends: "I found out that the
shipping company no longer existed, and the ship was scrapped about 15
years ago."
The years went by and Botha's luck didn't change.
Then about a year ago Botha got a lead. "A Greek friend of mine told
me that Babis is short for Charalampos. I found a phone listing for a
Charalampos Voreas in the Greek resort town of Kranidi."
But the phone number no longer worked.
Botha fired off hundreds of e-mails to people living in the town. He got
lucky. "Out of the blue I get this e-mail, which said he knew Babis
and that he was in Cuba."
Botha got a cellphone number for Voreas and dialled it. "I asked
'Are you Babis Voreas and did you have a son called Richard?'. He said
yes, then started crying. He didn't want to put the phone down."
Terwin made contact with his father, and a year later made the trip to
Cuba.
- This article was originally published on page 5 of The Star on September 03, 2008
Published on the Web by IOL on 2008-09-03 06:04:00
© Independent Online 2005. All
rights reserved. IOL publishes this article in good faith but is not
liable for any loss or damage caused by reliance on the information it
contains.
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