'Kidnapped' Woman Tracks Down Biological Dad on TikTok
"I was a missing person, I had been since 1980," said TikTok user Shawne Bolton in a bombshell video on the app.
Under the account @thebeardedmom, Bolton has recounted the various twists and turns of her life, and has unexpectedly gone viral for it. The ongoing series has had viewers so hooked, the account has managed to gain over 39,000 in less than two weeks, while the original video has over 1.6 million views. The claims have not been verified.
At the age of 26, the TikToker allegedly began to search for her biological mother, starting off by requesting her criminal records in her birth town. According to the video, the sheriff was unable to locate the old files, but, "became extremely interested in who I was and my personal information and after a few minutes of having a conversation about who I was, he asked me to please sit down and that he had something to tell me."
"I sat down, he told me that he couldn't find any information on my mother, but that I was a missing person," said Bolton. The TikToker claims she found out the parents who raised her were not her biological relatives at the age of ten, when the "mother" informed her. Shortly after, she claims she ended up in the foster care system.
"For the first ten years of my life, I didn't know that they weren't my parents. I thought that my dad was my dad, and my mom was my mom," she explained.
@thebeardedmom how I learned I had been kidnapped #storytime #realshit #thisismylife #nomoreshame #kidnapped #survivor #fyppppppppppppppppppppppp
♬ original sound - bearded mom
Bolton alleges in her TikTok videos that she was sold to the parents as a baby in 1980, and then reported as kidnapped by her biological family. Following videos recount the stories of her meeting her birth mother and family years on.
On May 9, the ongoing TikTok series took another turn when she revealed a TikTok user had helped her track down a man who could possibly be her father. Although she didn't reveal much about how she managed to find him, an update from Bolton confirmed they have been in touch.
Now, she has shared that both she and her suspected father are taking a DNA test to confirm his identity.
In a Facebook message, Bolton told Newsweek that she plans to keep information about her potential father private.
"My dad knew about me but put me in the back of his mind because he felt bad, and I've always been a secret," she claims in a recent TikTok video.
Newsweek has contacted Shawne Bolton for a further comment.
