The FBI has reopened its investigation into the kidnapping of a newborn from a Chicago hospital almost half a century ago. (WGN-TV) 
 
 The FBI has reopened its investigation into the kidnapping of a newborn from a Chicago hospital almost half a century ago. 
 
 The boy, named Paul Joseph Fronczak, was snatched from the former Michael Reese Hospital in 1964 by a woman posing as a nurse. Fourteen months later, a toddler abandoned in Newark, N.J., who resembled the missing child was returned to Fronczak's parents after an investigation by the FBI. 
 
 But earlier this year, lab tests of DNA swabs from Fronczak's parents determined that he was not the infant taken from Michael Reese. 
 
 On Wednesday, Joan Hyde, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Chicago, confirmed that the bureau is looking into the mystery again. Investigators are reviewing the original evidence, said Hyde, who called it "a lucky break" that the files were located. 
 
 "It was deemed appropriate to take a fresh look at the evidence that we have and possibly re-interview (witnesses) that are still around," she said. 
 
 Some physical evidence might benefit from modern testing, Hyde said, but she declined to elaborate. At the time of the kidnapping, the Tribune reported that the hospital had not taken prints of the baby's fingers or feet before he was abducted. 
 
 In a telephone interview Wednesday, Fronczak said federal investigators told him they were reinvestigating the kidnapping during a visit to his home in Nevada three weeks ago. He had sought the DNA swabs from his parents because of lingering suspicions that he was not their biological son. 
 
 "I feel like I'm one step closer to solving these two tragic mysteries and one step closer to a happy ending," Fronczak said. 
 
 Fronczak has said his parents, Chester and Dora, told him that they support his desire to solve the mystery but said it's too painful for them to be involved. The parents, who live in Oak Lawn, have previously declined comment on the turn of events and did not return a call for comment Wednesday. 
 
 Fronczak said he's optimistic about the renewed FBI probe even though he knows the difficulties facing authorities so many years later in trying to figure out his identity and what happened to his parents' biological child. 
 
 "I'm in this for the long haul. I'm not going to quit," he said. "I think that the perfect ending would be to find the real Paul, see that he's doing well and then on the same day find my real family. It would also be nice to have an actual birth date that I could believe in." 
 
 ehirst@tribune.com ||||| Feds reopen 1964 stolen baby case BY STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporter 
 
 Paul Fronczak, 49, thought he had been kidnapped from Michael Reese Hospital when he was just two days old and found 14 months later alone in a stroller in Newark, N.J. But he recently learned through DNA testing that there was a mistake: The kidnapped baby and the Newark toddler aren’t the same person. In other words, he’s not the real Paul Fronczak. 
 
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 In 1965, the shape of an abandoned toddler’s ear helped convince federal investigators that, quite possibly, they had found Paul Fronczak — the newborn baby kidnapped from Michael Reese Hospital a year earlier. 
 
 It was a mistaken assumption. But now, the 21st Century version of facial recognition analysis — and DNA — may help the FBI track down the real Paul Fronczak. 
 
 The FBI announced Wednesday that they have reopened the nearly 50-year-old case that drew national headlines. 
 
 “It’s just an opportunity to look at this, give it a fresh look and perhaps re-interview witnesses,” said Joan Hyde, a spokeswoman for the FBI office in Chicago. “See if new witnesses come forward. We now have the ability to perhaps subject some of the physical evidence to new and previously unavailable forensic examinations.” 
 
 The Fronczak case was front-page news in the city and beyond, when a woman — disguised as a nurse — walked into Michael Reese on April 27, 1964, and told Dora Fronczak that her newborn was needed for an examination. The woman took the baby, got in a taxi and the two were never seen again. 
 
 Hundreds of Chicago police officers and FBI agents took part in a massive search. In July 1965, an abandoned boy resembling the missing baby turned up in Newark, N.J. Without DNA or fingerprints, there was no proof it was Chester and Dora Fronczak’s infant, but they clung to that belief because investigators suggested the child was likely theirs. The Fronczaks raised that child in their home in Oak Lawn. 
 
 The tragic story made headlines earlier this year when a now middle-aged Paul Fronczak, who lives in Nevada, revealed the results of DNA testing showing he isn’t Chester and Dora Fronczak’s son. Ever since, Paul Fronczak has been on a mission to find out his true identity and find the real Paul Fronczak. 
 
 “I am very happy to see the FBI reopen the case, thanks to my ruffling the media’s feathers!” Paul Fronczak said in an email Wednesday. “I feel I am one step closer to solving these two tragic mysteries, and one step closer to a very happy ending!” 
 
 Still, Fronczak knows that his search is painful for his adoptive parents. In a brief interview in June, Dora Fronczak told the Chicago Sun-Times they don’t want to re-live the past. And on Wednesday, Chester Fronczak told a reporter he wasn’t interested in chatting. 
 
 Yet, the Fronczaks’ help may prove vital in learning the truth. Investigators have obtained DNA samples from Dora and Chester Fronczak to run through their database in search of a possible match, Hyde said. 
 
 The focus of the investigation centers on the kidnapping in Chicago, Hyde said, but may progress to involve the abandoned toddler in Newark. 
 
 “It’s possible he was a victim of a crime himself,” Hyde said. 
 
 Email: sesposito@suntimes.com 
 
 Twitter: @slesposito
– Paul Joseph Fronczak was abducted as an infant from a Chicago hospital in 1964; shortly afterward authorities thought they'd found him and returned a baby to Fronczak's parents. That child was raised as Paul Fronczak—but a DNA test this year shows it wasn't him. Now, the FBI is reopening the case, the Chicago Tribune reports. The man raised as Fronczak is hoping to find the kidnapping victim, not to mention his own birth parents. "I'm in this for the long haul," he says. "The perfect ending would be to find the real Paul, see that he's doing well and then on the same day find my real family," he says. In 1964, a woman posing as a nurse told mom Dora Fronczak the baby needed an exam; the "nurse" and the baby disappeared in a taxi, the Chicago Sun-Times notes. Investigators thought they'd found the baby in New Jersey, identifying an abandoned child as Fronczak partially based on the shape of his ears. Now, the FBI hopes "new witnesses come forward," and it may "subject some of the physical evidence to new and previously unavailable forensic examinations," says a rep.