Shoreline Reporter, Volume 17, Number 26, June 28, 2001

Moving from despair to hope after Skyway leap

Healing accelerated by promise of long-awaited reunion

By Eleanor L. Bailey

When Lynne Marie Carty read the June 12, 2001 newspaper story about a man who'd jumped from the Skyway Bridge, it triggered her characteristic urge to help. The article reported that Hanns Jones had miraculously survived a 200-foot leap triggered in large part by his life-long, and by then fruitless, search for his father. Carty began a nationwide search that located Jones' father within a week. Now, recuperating at the home of his sister in Missouri, Hanns Jones' life is on the mend.

As the driving force behind the Treasure Island-based "reunitepeople.com," Carty makes it her business to fulfill requests to locate missing people. Before now, even the US Army had tried with no success to find Hanns Jones' father. But Carty's determination and will to succeed is boundless. "I believe if you search extensively enough, it is truly possible to locate anyone on this earth," she said. "I just wish people would realize this so we could help them before they give up."

Carty visited Jones the day after the St. Pete Times article appeared, telling him of her commitment to find his dad. She heard of the further despair that drove Jones to his leap from the bridge and she learned that, even before hitting the water, his urge to live had returned. He knew he did not want his four children to grow up fatherless as he had.

His father had gone overseas during the Vietnam War and Jones had not seen or heard from him since. Carty contacted Jones' sister and mother in Missouri and "We all agreed that Hanns has a lot more living to do and the search would be well worth the effort."

Carty called upon an established and growing nationwide network of contacts she refers to as "her team." After a crash course in "military MOS #s" and extended contacts including a former military buddy and the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association, she obtained a telephone number for the elder Jones.

Carty reports that Hanns' father was very receptive to the idea of a reunion. His half-sister, who is 17-months younger, confirms that a reunion will be arranged once her brother is fully recuperated.

"Lynne Marie was able to complete an important circle in my brother's life," She said. "He'd tried in vain for so long to locate his dad, it seems an absolute miracle that this lady was able find him within a week. We all will be eternally grateful."

Photo by Paul R. Farmer - The beauty of the massive, fixed span Skyway bridge is awe-inspiring to many, but it's majesty also often calls to those who feel despair at the turns their lives have taken. Hanns Jones miraculously survived his 200-foot leap from the Skyway bridge and now his life is on the mend thanks the caring support of others.

AUGUST 20, 2001 13:38 EDT

Florida Man Embraces New Goals

By PAT LEISNER
Associated Press Writer

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Hanns Jones' life was in shambles. The love of his life had kicked him out, his work as an inventor stirred little interest and a lifelong search for his father had turned up empty. Alone and hopeless, he drove to the center span of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and jumped 200 feet — the equivalent of a 20-story building — into the choppy waters of Tampa Bay. Jones felt the rush of the air. He can still visualize the descent. But before he hit the water, he changed his mind. ``As I got closer to the bottom,'' he said, ``I had the feeling this was a bad idea.''

The image of his 18-month-old son, Braner, flashed before him. Suddenly, life was precious. Jones wanted to live. He wanted his son to grow up knowing his father. Jones slammed into the water feet first and lost consciousness. The impact stripped the clothes from his body. When he came to, he felt his hand move.

``I could feel myself swimming. I saw rocks and I started thinking about my son. It was like he was there in front of me. There was no way I was not going to make it. ``I was hurting real bad — broken ribs both sides, a broken neck, a burst spleen and a collapsed lung. But I made it. I swam nearly half the length of a football field. I don't know how. It was absolutely a miracle.''

Paramedics found the 36-year-old Jones naked and clinging to a bridge piling. ``It's unbelievable the man survived,'' said Jim Cunningham, one of the paramedics who responded. Jones' plunge resulted in an unlikely second chance, leading him on a journey that helped him find his father and made him realize how much he wanted to be a father himself to his four children.

Jones was born in Mineral Wells, Texas, and was raised alone by his mother. He never knew his father, and hit dead ends when he tried to look for him. ``I had gotten to the point where I thought my father was deceased,'' he said. ``It was very troubling to me, a great stress in my life.'' During his two-week hospital stay, a woman who finds missing people read about Jones' May 30 bridge jump. In just six days, she found his father. The two plan to meet next month after Jones sheds his head and neck brace and finishes recuperating at his sister's home outside Neosho, Mo.

Jones' father was ``amazed and speechless'' to learn his son was looking for him, said Lynn-Marie Carty of Reunite People. She tracked him down out West using the Internet, a network of contacts and a maze of Army files. ``Her finding my dad was more improbable than my surviving a jump off that bridge,'' said Jones, who won't disclose his father's name or say where he is living. ``I don't know my father, but I know I love him,'' he said. During his teen-age years Jones went out on his own, served in the Army Reserve and began working odd jobs to give him time to work on his inventions. One of them was Sock Locker, attachable socks that stay together in the wash. At the time of the jump, Jones was financially devastated and had just broken up with the girlfriend who had given birth to one of his children. Cunningham, whose marine rescue team is responsible for the Skyway, said authorities get about 12 to 15 calls a year about a person jumping from the bridge. In his 17 years on the job, only five or six have lived. ``You always go out with it in your head you're going to save someone, but the odds are so stacked against you,'' Cunningham said. ``This man was given a second chance; no doubt about it.''

Just Sunday, yet another man survived a jump from the bridge. Steven Wood, 26, was hospitalized at Bayfront Medical Center on Monday. He suffered scrapes and cuts. No one is more aware of his second chance than Jones, whose three sons and a daughter range in age from little Braner to 14 years. ``I hurt a lot of people when I went off that bridge,'' he said. ``It changed everything. I don't know how to explain it. I want to be here to help my children. I know nothing's going to bring me down now. My whole life I never felt that. ``To walk away from this. Well, I'm supposed to be here.''

Local News: Mother and daughter to be reunited after 42 years apart

Saturday, December 21, 2002

Mother and daughter to be reunited after 42 years apart

WINDY BOOHER

The News Herald

The call came just a few days before Thanksgiving. "It came out of the blue," said Sherrill O'Connell-Clark, a Lynn Haven resident, "from an investigator." The voice on the phone took her name, age, and place of birth, and then calmly informed Sherrill that her mother, Pat Mock, was looking for her.

Sherrill had not seen her mother for 42 years. When she was only 2 years old, Clark's father took his two children - Sherrill and her brother, Jimmy O'Connell - out for ice cream and never brought them home, she said. She has no memories of her mother. She was told that she wasn't wanted. The O'Connells moved from Georgia to Connecticut, then to New York, where her father remarried, finally settling in Florida in 1971. All the while, Sherrill didn't know if her mother was still alive, or if she was looking for her. "I never dropped my maiden name," she said. "Just in case my mother ever wanted to find me." It was Sherrill's aunt who began the search for her long-lost niece. Joy Lewis, who lives in Tampa, found a Web site, www.reunitepeople.com, which is run by Lynn-Marie Carty.

Carty is a former private investigator who spent her days "doing gloom-and-doom cases." She recalled the worst day of her career, when a construction crew installing a water line dug up dozens of infant corpses and threw them away. She had to track down the family of each one. She knew she was in the wrong business, and prayed that she be shown her gift. Shortly thereafter, she watched a television show on reuniting loved ones, and decided it was her calling. She launched her company in St. Petersburg in 1997 and began bringing families together. "It's beautiful," Carty said. "After they have been reunited, they volunteer to help others."

Carty now has a regional network that helps her with public records requests and delivering messages in person. She said it has made her work easier. Sherrill is anxious to begin working with Carty to help others in her situation. "It only took her three days to find me," she said. "I couldn't believe it." Sherrill's mother lives in Kansas, and her half-siblings live in Wisconsin. They plan to meet in March at Sherrill's daughter's wedding in Venice. Lewis will be there. Mock is scheduled to fly down from Kansas. For now, Sherrill is focused on the future, not the past. "This is the best Christmas I've ever had in my whole life," she said, "just knowing that I have a family. I can't wait to meet them."

Reunite People can be contacted at (727) 384-FIND (3463).

The writer can be contacted at wbooher@pcnh.com