Michael Randelman, Marcus Wallace, and retired
police sergeants Phillip Lavigne and Sheridan Ogden
By Nancy Flanders
Live Action News
Marcus Wallace spent the first seven years of his life believing his aunt was his mother. It wasn’t until his family began referring to her as his aunt that he knew something wasn’t quite right. He just didn’t know what it was. Then at age 20, he discovered his birth certificate and saw a stranger named as his mother.
Unsure of what this meant, he headed to the New York Public Library where he found a newspaper clipping from 1985 detailing the story of his birth. His mother, Dorothea Ballas, was a 21-year-old student at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey, when she gave birth to Wallace in her dorm room. Scared and alone, she placed the baby boy in a trash bag, tied a knot, and placed him in a dumpster behind a gas station. It was a frigid January day when she left her son to either freeze to death or suffocate.
Live Action News
Marcus Wallace spent the first seven years of his life believing his aunt was his mother. It wasn’t until his family began referring to her as his aunt that he knew something wasn’t quite right. He just didn’t know what it was. Then at age 20, he discovered his birth certificate and saw a stranger named as his mother.
Unsure of what this meant, he headed to the New York Public Library where he found a newspaper clipping from 1985 detailing the story of his birth. His mother, Dorothea Ballas, was a 21-year-old student at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey, when she gave birth to Wallace in her dorm room. Scared and alone, she placed the baby boy in a trash bag, tied a knot, and placed him in a dumpster behind a gas station. It was a frigid January day when she left her son to either freeze to death or suffocate.
“I broke down” after finding this information, Wallace told The New York Post. “I got on the subway and cried all the way from 42nd Street to Flatbush Avenue. I had lot of whys. What was wrong with me? Why me?”Heartbroken and distraught, Wallace’s self-esteem plummeted and brought his health down with it. He suffered two strokes but eventually began to accept what had happened and reclaim his life.
“My mother threw me in a dumpster,” he said. “It took me a very long time to deal with that, but I’ve gotten past it.”He decided to track down the reporter who had covered the story of his birth and abandonment. Through this connection, he was able to have The New York Post arrange a reunion with the three people who found and rescued him from the dumpster.
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