In December 2000, just three days before Christmas, police lieutenant Gene Eyster received a late-night call about an abandoned baby found in a South Bend, Ind., apartment building hallway. College students had discovered the newborn, wrapped in blankets and a flannel shirt.

“He was wrapped in blankets and a flannel shirt,” Eyster, now 70, recalled. “There was no note.”

On his way to the hospital, Eyster picked up a teddy bear to bring the baby a “little bit of comfort.”

I just wanted him to know he was cared about,” he explained.

During the investigation, Eyster began referring to the infant as “Baby Jesus,” feeling that the name Baby Boy Doe didn’t suit the situation. “He was born a couple of days before Christmas and placed in a box — and in my mind that box was a manger,” Eyster said. “So he became Baby Jesus.”

Eyster later learned that Baby Jesus had been placed with adoptive parents. Though life went on and new cases emerged, Eyster never stopped thinking about the baby. “I wondered, ‘What did he turn out to be?’ And God forbid, have I ever arrested him? Was he still alive?” he said.

At left, Matthew Hegedus-Stewart, now an officer, shakes the hand of Officer Gene Eyster.

Eyster, who retired in 2019, recently got the answers he had been seeking. “I’m sitting here 23 years later and the phone rings,” Eyster recounted. It was Officer Josh Morgan with a young man named Matthew Hegedus-Stewart.

“He goes, ‘You’re not going to believe this, but Baby Jesus is sitting next to me right now. He’s my rookie,'” Eyster said.

Morgan and Hegedus-Stewart had connected the dots when they responded to a domestic situation at the Park Jefferson Apartments — the same building where Hegedus-Stewart had been abandoned. “I was like, ‘I was abandoned as a baby here,'” Hegedus-Stewart, now a police officer, said. “Then Morgan looked up the report and saw Gene Eyster’s name attached to it.”

On March 22, Eyster and Hegedus-Stewart were reunited. The meeting was especially poignant for Eyster, who had lost his only child, his son Nicholas, in January. “I see some mannerisms in Matt that remind me of my son — he’s got the same grin, the same laugh, the same dark hair and stature,” Eyster noted.

Hegedus-Stewart and his fiancée, Jillian, are parents to a 14-month-old daughter, Aspen, and are expecting a boy in June. Aspen was born the same day Hegedus-Stewart was legally adopted.

“There are so many coincidences,” Eyster remarked. “I mean, Matt completes his field training and randomly gets assigned to the same beat of the apartment complex where he was found. What are the odds?”

Eyster expressed his pride in Hegedus-Stewart. “I’ve spoken to several of Matt’s supervisors and they have all said the same thing: He’s a kind officer, he’s a good kid,” Eyster said. “His parents have done a wonderful job raising him.”

Photos of Matthew Hegedus-Stewart when he was found abandoned.

Reflecting on his past, Hegedus-Stewart shared, “Growing up I was angry. You know, ‘Why me?’ But now I understand she was overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do.” He remains very close to his adoptive parents.

I definitely lucked out,” he said.

As the two recalled the twists of fate that brought them together, Eyster marveled at the extraordinary circumstances. “The irony of everything falling into place the way it did,” he said. “You have a better chance of winning the lottery.”

Their reunion was a heartwarming conclusion to a story that began with a desperate situation and ended with hope and new beginnings. For Eyster, meeting the young officer who once was Baby Jesus offered a sense of closure and joy, knowing the baby he saved had grown into a compassionate and dedicated member of the force.

Sources: Today | Daily Mail