At long last, former pageant star Elizabeth Hunterton, who was abandoned at the airport after just being born, is set to meet her biological mother in the coming weeks.
Hunterton, 41, had always known she was adopted. In January of 1980, just 10 days after she was born, two pilots found her unattended at a gate in an airport in Nevada.
Over the years, she has shared her journey via social media, chronicling the many bumps she experienced on the road to discovering who she is.
Since there was little to no information about the ‘airport baby,’ social services referred to Hunterton at the time as ‘Baby Jane Doe.’
While she was adopted into a loving home almost immediately, Hunterton was left wondering who she was, and why she was left behind in the first place.
‘I was about 10 days old,’ she told People Magazine in a 2021 interview. ‘I grew up my entire life trying to figure out what I did in those 10 days that ultimately led to them saying, ‘Let’s just leave her at the airport.”
Former pageant star Elizabeth Hunterton (pictured), who was abandoned at the airport after just being born, is set to meet her biological mother
The 41-year-old said she always knew she was adopted (Pictured: Her adoptive mother (left) and Hunterton as a baby (right)
While she was adopted into a loving home almost immediately, Hunterton was left wondering who she was, and why she was left behind in the first place. (Pictured: her biological father (left) and Hunterton as a baby (right)
Since there was little to no information about the ‘airport baby,’ social services referred to Hunterton (pictured) as ‘Baby Jane Doe’
Encouraged by her best friend to share her story on TikTok, Hunterton has been documenting her journey of searching for her birth parents, as well as being open vulnerable about the emotions and healing that come with discovering the truth behind her abandonment.
Hunterton had a stellar childhood and was raised in a white family in Reno who loved her beyond measure. She was crowned Miss Nevada in 2004 and is still CEO of the organization today. She married a man with whom she shares two biological sons aged 5 and 6, and also a stepson.
She said her adoptive parents had a beautiful way of explaining her adoption, leading with kindness instead of vilifying her birth mother.
‘I just remember my mom explaining that I was lucky enough to have two sets of parents: one who loved me enough to raise me and one who loved me enough to give me up,’ she said in a TikTok video.
In fact, her parents managed to skip a four-and-a-half-year adoption waitlist.
Hunterton (left) was crowned Miss Nevada in 2004 and is still CEO of the organization today
Pictured: Miss Nevada Elizabeth Muto Hunterton appears during the swimsuit preliminaries wearing a yellow and black two-piece Speedo during the Miss America Competition at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J., Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2004
She married a man with whom she shares two biological sons aged 5 and 6 (center)
Hunterton (centrer) also has a stepson (left) with her husband (right)
Hunterton said she had a stellar childhood and was raised in a white family (left: adoptive mother, right: adoptive father) in Reno who loved her beyond measure
‘Social Services called every other potential adoptive parent who has been approved, and those that had been on the waitlist for longer than 28 days, and all of them said no – no they were not willing to adopt a black baby,’ she said in a TikTok video.
‘They called my parents, and with no questions asked, my mom and dad sped down the hill, picked me up, and I’ve been with them ever since.’
‘If my birth mother had known that I would end up with the world’s best and most loving parents, the best teacher she ever could have prayed for, she never would have wasted one second of energy wondering if she made the right decision.’
Hunterton didn’t have a known birthplace, birthdate, or race, which made it almost impossible for investigators to help her discover her backstory.
In August 2021, a 23andMe test connected her to a few distant relatives, but none of them were her parents.
‘If my birth mother had known that I would end up with the world’s best and most loving parents, the best teacher she ever could have prayed for, she never would have wasted one second of energy wondering if she made the right decision,’ Hunterson said in a TikTok.
Hunterton’s biological father (left) passed away in 2004, and did not know he had a daughter
A distant relative put Hunterton (left) in touch with her uncle (right), who was the brother of her biological father
A distant relative put Hunterton in touch with her uncle, who was the brother of her biological father.
In a TikTok video, she recounted what it was like meeting her uncle.
‘I was so warmly welcomed, which blew my mind,’ she said. ‘called my biological uncle and he was like ‘my dear niece, this is the kind of thing you hear about in the movies but you never expect to come to a theatre near you.”
She said her uncle told her that her father was essentially the whole package – kind, funny, a tremendous athlete (which is where she got her athleticism from as she was a varsity track runner in high school). But after a half hour, Hunterton realized her uncle was only referring to her biological father in the past tense.
That’s when her uncle informed her that her biological father had passed away in 2004, and that he did not even know of her existence. Heartbreakingly, Hunterton’s uncle told her that her father had always dreamed of having a biological child of his own.
‘He did adopt his stepson and he loved him dearly, but my uncle said that more than anything, his one unfulfilled wish was a biological child of his own,’ she said in a TikTok video.
‘It’s sad because he did have one, he just didn’t know about me.’
Heartbreakingly, Hunterton (pictured as a child) said her uncle told her that her father had always dreamed of having a biological child of his own
‘It’s sad because he did have one, he just didn’t know about me,’ she said
Although it only took five days for Hunterton to track down her paternal lineage, finding her biological mother proved to be much more difficult (pictured: her adoptive father (left), Hunterton (center), and her adoptive (right)
Hunterton said when her uncle told her that, she immediately felt the presence of her biological father.
‘I knew that the moment he did find out about me when he passed, he became one of my guardian angels,’ she said. ‘I’m very much my biological father’s daughter; we look alike, we talk alike, and the first time I met my biological uncle, he just kept staring at me.’
She recalled: ‘(My uncle) said ‘it’s just crazy, it’s just so weird to see a young female version of my brother. There a million little things you do that bring my brother back to life.’
Although it only took five days for Hunterton to track down her paternal lineage, finding her biological mother proved to be much more difficult.
Just when Hunterton was about to give up completely, assuming her birth mother was the first of three woman the test matched her with who had passed away years ago, she connected with her second cousin, who put her in touch with her biological mother.
Mustering all of her courage, Hunterton sent a two-and-a-half-page handwritten letter to her. When her biological mother reached out to her, the floodgates opened from there.
Although it only took five days for Hunterton to track down her paternal lineage, finding her biological mother proved to be much more difficult (Pictured: Hunter’s 2004 Miss Nevada contestant badge)
Just when Hunterton (pictured) was about to give up completely, assuming her birth mother was the first of three woman the test matched her with who had passed away years ago, she connected with her second cousin, who put her in touch with her biological mother
Mustering all of her courage, Hunterton (pictured) sent a two-and-a-half-page handwritten letter to her biological mother
Hunterton learned she was born to a black father and a Japanese mother who met at the Fort Ord military base. She learned she was born in a hospital in California, and was finally able to get a hold of her birth certificate.
She also learned that her abandonment at the Nevada airport was not the fault of her mother, whom she referred to as ‘number four’ in her TikToks.
‘When I received her email, she shared that she wasn’t able to take care of me as she believed I deserved,’ Hunterton told People. ‘Therefore, she gave me to her roommate who was supposed to take me to an adoption agency. When my birth mother was told that I was actually left at the airport instead, it took quite a toll.’
As if by fate, Hunterton found out she was given ‘Elizabeth’ as her middle name by her biological mother before her adoptive mother and father knew who she was – a discovery that brought her peace and comfort.
One of the darker details she told Elizabeth, however, was that she was the product of rape. Her biological father’s side of the family said anything of that nature was far out of character for him.
She also said in a TikTok video that while she did believe her biological mother was violated, she said she will never know if her biological father was the one who did so.
‘I looked deeper into this than anyone else ever has, but when all is said and done and I sit there with that question, ‘am I the product of rape?’ the one place where my soul finds peace is I don’t know if I am,’ she said in a TikTok video.
Hunterton (left) learned she was born to a black father and a Japanese mother who met at the Fort Ord military base (right: her husband)
She learned she was born in a hospital in California, and was finally able to get a hold of her birth certificate (Pictured: Hunterton, her stepson, and her two children)
‘I would have no choice but to accept that. I’m not going to hate myself because of choices that had nothing to do with me.’
After years of keeping in touch over email and sharing occasional text conversations, Hunterton and her mother are meeting on May 18. But she said it took years to get to the mental headspace where she could handle meeting her biological mother.
‘I have learned that I have given my biological mother more grace than she has ever given herself,’ she said in a TikTok video. ‘She is finally giving herself permission to live now that she knows I’m okay. It hurts my heart knowing how long she punished herself for something I never thought of as wrongdoing.’