A Little Boy Wandered Away 30 Years Ago And Returned Home Under Strange Circumstances

Manila is today one of the most densely populated cities on Earth. But even back in 1985 — the year that Joel was separated from his mom — the city had a huge number of inhabitants. At that time more than 6.5 million people called the capital home — so it doesn’t take too much imagination to picture just how incredibly busy its city-center markets must have been.

As recounted by a podcast on the website of travel insurance firm World Nomads, Joel and his mom had been at the Munoz Market that fateful day. The sights and sounds of the place must have been quite overwhelming for the young kid, and at some point he lost his mother. Now, he was alone within this maze of people. He wandered around helplessly, hoping to find his guardian.

That, sadly, would never happen. Joel failed to locate his mother, but someone noticed the small boy walking around all on his own. This person brought him to the police, inadvertently kickstarting a series of events that would change Joel’s life forever. Nothing would ever be the same again.

Today, some three decades after that terrible day he lost his mom, Joel is all grown up. He’s a successful filmmaker and business owner these days, and he has quite a lot going on in his life. But how he got to this point of success is quite a remarkable story.

The notion that things would work out well for Joel might have seemed unlikely to anyone who knew his story. The date was July 25, 1985, when he was spotted alone in the market by a guy who drove taxis. This Good Samaritan watched over the boy for a while, before bringing him to the police.

Despite being so young while all this was going on, Joel can actually remember this happening. In the World Nomads podcast, he elaborated, “I was headed into the police station, and when they asked what my name was, I couldn’t tell them, and when they asked what my parents’ name was, I couldn’t tell them either.”

Obviously, the police station really wasn’t a good place for a kid as young as five to be hanging around. So, Joel was eventually moved on to a detention center. This wasn’t suitable either, so he was brought to an orphanage. Calls for his guardians to come forward, meanwhile, were broadcast on the radio.

These pleas for Joel’s parents to reach out and collect him ultimately went unheeded. Nobody stepped forward, meaning there was only one thing for it: the child was declared to be “abandoned” in the eyes of the law. As a matter of fact, there was a specific word for people like Joel, as he explained to World Nomads. He said, “When a child is found with no name and or no identification in the Philippines, they are named as… [a] ‘foundling.’”

This new status marked a grim new reality for the young boy. It did, though, come with a certain benefit. With his new classification as “abandoned,” Joel was now permitted to be put up for adoption. He would have a chance to find a new family.

It was around this time that Joel got his new identity. He hadn’t always been called that, but seeing as how he couldn’t tell officials his real name, they gave him a new one. He became Joel Maselo, and his birthday was nominated as August 4, 1985, with Quezon City named as his place of origin.

In the months that followed, more appeals in search of Joel’s parents were broadcast through a variety of different media sources. But still no response ever came. It was looking increasingly obvious that nobody was going to come and claim the child. Adoption looked like the only way of providing this kid with a future.

In September 1986 — more than a year after he’d been separated from his mother — Joel was approaching the point where he’d become part of a new family. Over in Melbourne, Australia, a couple had been looking to adopt. These people — named Julie and George de Carteret — came across Joel and wanted to bring him into their clan.

A couple of months later, Julie and George were on a plane over to the Philippines to meet Joel. For a fortnight, they spent time with the boy and got to know him better. And when everything seemed right, all the necessary paperwork was completed. Joel was ready to start a new life.

Accompanied by his new adoptive parents, Joel’s journey to Australia took place on December 8, 1986. Obviously the episode must have represented something of an emotional whirlwind for Joel, full of excitement, confusion, and probably quite a bit of anxiety. It was, after all, a massive change for a young boy who’d already been through so much.

Despite having been so young at the time, Joel can remember the experience with a tremendous level of clarity. On his website, where he talks about his life experiences, he wrote, “When I first arrived in Australia, it was really overwhelming, but I was really just absorbing everything... things looked different, and even smelled different to back home.”

When Joel was brought to his new home, he was shown his bedroom and all the toys he now owned. He also met the neighbors’ kids, to whom he instantly took a liking. He recalled, “I remember that first day, I went for a nap and when I woke up I went to my neighbor’s place and just connected and played with David and Simone — without even knowing how to speak English, we miraculously communicated through play.”

Perhaps making friends as easily as he did helped Joel to quickly settle into his new life in Australia. Even though it was a very different sort of routine to the one to which he’d previously grown accustomed, he found the whole experience very exciting. He said, “I felt safe and loved in my new home and didn’t feel I had any major difficulties adjusting.”

It wasn’t all smooth sailing, though. Joel recalled, “The most challenging aspect was being in school and learning how to read and write, especially when we were asked to read out loud — that was really difficult for me.” But the youngster remained undaunted. He remembered: “No matter how long it took, I was determined to get to the end.”

Over time, though, Joel managed to integrate into his new society. In October 1988 he officially became a citizen of Australia, and his English continued to improve. By the time he was in high school, he started to develop an interest in the arts. Things like singing, dancing, and acting allowed him to express himself in a way he didn’t quite feel comfortable doing through conversing in English.

During his early adulthood, Joel was really concentrating on dance as a means of expression. But in his efforts to improve, he often filmed himself practicing. This slowly developed into a passion for film outright, which is really where he found his niche. All these years later, filmmaking is now his primary pursuit.

Of course, all the while that Joel was developing as an artist and as a person, the traumatic experiences of his childhood stuck with him. He always retained an interest in his homeland, and he even traveled there with his Australian family in 2000. This, maybe, provided a certain amount of catharsis, but he could never feel truly at peace about his past. Not until he learned what had happened to his birth mom.

Joel is more than aware he got lucky by moving to Australia with Julie and George. But he was always bothered by the possibility of his birth mom’s pain at having lost her boy. As reported by the 9Honey website, he said, “When I think about the years and the pain and the separation, loss, and grief that she’s gone through, you know, there is guilt to have had that blessed life at all.”

Joel realized he needed to find the woman who’d given birth to him. And luckily for him, he had the total support of his adoptive mom Julie. She said, “I’m lucky to have him, but I’m really sorry that [his birth mother] hasn’t been a part of his life. I’m sorry that Joel hasn’t been part of her life as he’s been part of mine.”

The search wasn’t going to be easy, though. Joel remembered very little about his real mother, and the memories he did have were all very vague. It’s possible they weren’t even real. But by 2016 he knew he had to try and learn what had happened to his birth mom.

Naturally, Joel was afraid of what he might discover. Even if he did manage to find her somehow, maybe his birth mother wouldn’t want anything to do with him. Or maybe she wasn’t even alive anymore. The potential for a great deal of pain here was very real, but he moved forward with his search all the same.

The Philippines has a population of well over 100 million people, and Joel didn’t even know his mom’s name. How could he begin his search? Well, as a filmmaker, his mind drifted toward the power of media. He made contact with the team of Jessica Soho, who is among the most famous faces on TV in the Philippines.

On Jessica Soho’s TV show, a segment calling for information about Joel’s mother was put out. As previously mentioned, public appeals had been made in the immediate aftermath of the separation all those years ago, but to no avail. Amazingly, though, this time it worked. Someone who saw the show got in touch with the network, sending over a photograph. It was a picture of a young boy and a woman named Herminia Rio.

Herminia actually resided close to the Munoz Market where Joel got lost. It was a promising lead, and after a few ups and downs it became clear this woman was likely to be the right person. All that was required was a DNA test. This was done, and sure enough the result proved it: Joel had found his mother.

Once Joel and Herminia learned the news, they both understandably succumbed to some very intense emotion. As Joel remarked on Australian TV show 60 Minutes, “She just started sobbing and hugged me. After about five or ten minutes I started to feel it... this is my mum. This is who I’ve been looking [for].”

It wasn’t just Joel who met up with Herminia, either. His adoptive mom, Julia, had also made the journey over to Manila to meet the woman who’d given birth to the child she’d raised. It was a complicated moment, for sure. How would Herminia feel about this other woman who had raised her child?

Any possibility of tension was quickly brushed aside. As captured by 60 Minutes, the two ladies hugged and bonded over their love for Joel. And for his part, Joel was delighted this had happened. He said, “I can’t believe it, I am seeing my two mothers together: I never thought this day would happen.”

The tale didn’t end there. Another emotional moment would come later, when Herminia made the journey over to Australia for the first time. It allowed her to see the life her son had ended up with after he had been separated from her so long ago.

As captured by 60 Minutes, Joel was overcome with emotion when Herminia touched down in Sydney. Giving his birth mom a hug inside the airport, he said, “Hey mum, welcome to Australia.” With him all the way through this difficult process, his adoptive mother Julie was also there that day.

This entire process was obviously quite a lot for Joel to fully wrap his head around. As he reflected to the 60 Minutes crew, “It’s surreal, it’s really surreal... Six months ago I never thought my biological mum would be sitting next to me and we just get to hang out.”

After finding each other after all those years away from each other, Joel and Herminia had been in contact on a regular basis. And with her trip to Australia, their newfound connection would have the opportunity to solidify even more. They had an awful lot to catch up on.

It wasn’t just Joel who was delighted with how things worked out in the end. Both Herminia and Julie were really happy with what had happened. As Julie put it to 60 Minutes, “It’s incredible to find somebody among all those people. It’s wonderful. It’s a happy ending. Everybody loves a happy ending.”

This happy ending had by no means ever been assured. The chance of finding one specific person in a place with as high a population as the Philippines had been thin, at best. Even Joel had felt doubts during the earlier stages of the process, as he admitted on 60 Minutes. He said, “There were so many times I wanted to give up.”

Julie had also held a fair amount of skepticism at the beginning of the search. She’d known finding Joel’s biological mom would “make his life complete,” but she had also been very fearful of how he’d feel if they failed. She said, “I was worried about how he would be able to move on when he didn’t find his mother.”

In the end, though, it worked out like the plot of a movie. Joel found his birth mother, and was able to introduce her to his adoptive family and the life they’d helped him build for himself. It was a sweet end to a tale that had begun with so much pain, all those years ago.