My mom had a cousin who she was told was murdered as an infant by his mother who then got put in an institution for the rest of her life. One day I decided I needed to try to find the death record. The only problem was I could only find one other person with the infant's name. But he died at 73. When I looked closer I noticed that they had the same birthday. Of course, as I kept digging I found that it was the same person. He had grown up with his father's family, but his mother's family believed he was dead. Why they kept it secret is beyond me. Did they just want the family to not look for him? Was it part of an elaborate lie to have the mother committed?
My mom has since befriended his son who is a second cousin