ORLANDO, Fla. — A sergeant with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office was curious about his family history — so he decided to take a DNA test to learn more.
- Sgt. David Stull finds brother through DNA test
- Stull was adopted as an infant, wanted to learn family history
- His brother Eric Reynolds was also in law enforcement
Sgt. David Stull has been with Orange County Sheriff’s Office for 19 years.
He was adopted as an infant.
“I grew up in a wonderful household. My adopted parents, my dad was a Navy Pilot. I got to live all over the country and all over the world, life was good. But since they passed away, I realized I didn’t know anything about my history,” Stull said.
Stull decided to go through 23andMe to find out more.
“Underneath the medical stuff, it said, ‘Would like to see your DNA relatives?’ So after thinking that over little while, I went and checked yes, and the results came up. The first thing that popped up was a half-brother,” Stull said.
He contacted him and found out the two had a lot of similarities — they are both married with kids and both were in law enforcement.
Eric Reynolds his half-brother recently retired from the Boynton Beach Police Department.
“We jokingly say it’s in the DNA because our life paths have been very similar to each other, yet we never knew each other. We played the same sports, same careers,” Stull said.
“That’s the cherry on top for the whole story,” Reynolds said.
They met for the first time in-person in July.
“It was pretty exciting. Actually to tell the truth, (it’s) been overwhelming. (I) met the whole family pretty much, and we are moving on from here,” Reynolds said.
Stull’s brother retired after 19 years, and now he plans to retire from the Orange County Sheriff’s office in June 2020 after 30 years on the job.