BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. (WPTV) — A pair of Florida law enforcement officers are more than just brothers in blue; they recently discovered they’re also half brothers.
According to the Boynton Beach Police Department, Officer Eric Reynolds received an email last month from a man named David Stull, a sergeant with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in Central Florida.
“According to 23andMe, we are half-brothers,” Stull said in his email. “I was adopted as an infant and have very little knowledge of my family history, so I have no way of knowing the validity of this.”
BBPD said Reynolds himself used 23andMe, a DNA genetic testing company, three years ago to learn more about his family’s ancestry, but he never imagined this.
“It was pretty stressful, it was emotional, it was sad because I didn’t know the story of his history,” said Reynolds at a news conference Friday. “We’re still learning so much about each other. It’s amazing.”
“I was expecting to see cousins and stuff like that. The top of the list said half-brother. I hadn’t considered that possibility,” Stull said. “It just kind of blew up from there.”
Reynolds and Stull met for the first time July 20.
“My wife is always like, ‘are you texting your brother again?'” Stull said. “Of course, because we have 50 years to make up for it.”
“We’re both retiring soon so we’ll have plenty of time to catch up,” Reynolds said. “I have a chapter, he has a chapter, now we have a third chapter to work on.”
