Kevin Battle always knew he was adopted, but the retired South Portland police officer only recently learned the truth of how he ended up with his adoptive parents, the Portland Press Herald reports.

Following clue after clue, the 59-year-old discovered he was just a baby when he was pulled from the arms of his unwed, 24-year-old mother in County Limerick, Ireland, by church officials, according to the newspaper. His mother had run away with her young son from Sean Ross Abbey, a convent where Irish girls were sent to give birth out of wedlock, but nuns found her and took the boy.


For a $1,000 donation to the church, he was sent to be adopted by a New York family, who did not know the child had been taken by force from his birth mother, according to the Press Herald.

Battle told the newspaper when he visited the convent in Ireland in 1978 searching for answers about his mother, he was lied to and told his birth mother was dead.

Take the time to read this today. @PLOvertonPPH tells the tale of Kevin Battle of South Portland learning the story of his birth.https://t.co/amiotO89XJ — Portland Press Herald (@PressHerald) May 13, 2018

“I thought I was an orphan, that she hadn’t wanted me and I’d never know why, but they lied,” he told the Press Herald. “She did want me. The church stole me from her, like they did to a lot of unwed mothers, and sold me. And years later, when I came asking, they lied and slammed the door in my face.”

Battle’s mother died in 2009. The two never made contact, but the former police officer recently returned from a trip where he met half siblings.

Read the full story at the Press Herald.