It is hard to fathom that something as crazy as the ABC Family series Switched at Birth happened in real life. However, there have been many cases of children being mistakenly switched and raised up by people who aren’t their biological parents.

Can you imagine that this turned out to be the reality of two sets of Colombian twins? They grew up not knowing that they each had an identical twin somewhere out there; we found this to be very intriguing. This is the story of how they were reunited years later.

Two Sets Of Twins Land In The Same Room

In 1988 a Columbian hospital delivered identical twins on December 21. Within the same medical facility, two other twins were born the very next day. The first set of twins, William and Jorge, were born prematurely arriving two months ahead of time. The second set of twins, Wilber and Carlos, were also premature babies.

Soon after their birth, Carlos became sick and he ended up in a medical facility alongside his twin brother Wilber. As fate would have it, William and Jorge were also in the same medical center and both sets of twins shared the same room at one point.

A Case Of Mistaken Identity

Janeth Paez and her friend Laura Vega Garzon walked into a butchery located in northern Bogota looking for pork ribs. It was during the Summer of 2013, and Laura was taken aback to see the man standing behind the counter. William, the cousin of Janeth’s boyfriend, was behind the counter going about expertly cutting pigs’ feet and filleting beef.

The only thing is that Laura knew the man; it was her colleague Jorge who she worked with at the engineering technology firm called Strycon. Laura mentioned it to Janneth but her friend told her that she was mistaken. The man came out and embraced Janeth who then introduced him to her friend as William.

Photos Speak Louder Than Words

At work, the following Monday, Laura told Jorge that she had seen his double at a butcher counter. They laughed it off but Jorge told Laura that he actually shared DNA with a twin brother named Carlos but the two didn’t look like each other.

A month later, Janeth started working at Strycon as well and upon meeting Jorge she understood why Laura had mistaken William for their colleague. Six months would pass without them bringing it up to William. However, Janeth who had left the company by then texted Laura a photo of William; she then showed it to Jorge.

Doppelgangers Or Something Entirely Different?

When Laura showed Jorge William’s photo, Jorge was sure that it was him. William had on a Colombian soccer jersey, much like one Jorge owned and wore during matches. However, he knew that it wasn’t him in the picture. He started looking through more photos of William from his Facebook account and he couldn’t believe his eyes.

Jorge figured that perhaps his father who had been absent for most of his life had fathered another child. As he kept flipping through William’s photos, he came across one that left him even more confused. It was a photo of William and another male who looked exactly like his very own fraternal twin Carlos.

The Other Side Of The Coin

The next day Brian, Janeth’s boyfriend, told William about photos of two guys who looked like him and his twin brother Wilber. Brian, who is also the twins’ cousin, explained that Janeth had shown him the photos on her phone and William also recalled Janeth showing him a photo of a man who resembled him months earlier.

He had shrugged it off then but the fact that two men looked like him and his brother Wilber was very strange. William texted Janeth asking her to send him the photos because he was curious to see the proof. As soon as he saw the photo he couldn’t help but laugh.

Carlos & Jorge's Upbringing And Careers

Jorge and his brother Carlos grew up with their mother and sister within a small room inside their grandmother’s house in Bogota. They were well taken care of when growing up and attended good schools around their neighborhood. Sadly, they lost their mother to stomach cancer in 2011.

Carlos and his brother Jorge shared a two-bedroom apartment in a middle-class neighborhood. The two had done well for themselves with Carlos landing an accounting job while he pursued higher learning by attending evening classes. Likewise, Jorge also attended classes at night after clocking out from his job at Strycon.

A Tough Childhood For William And Wilber

William, his brother Wilber and their family grew up in the rural village of Santander. The brothers had served in the military and William went on to earn a scholarship. Unfortunately, he couldn’t claim it because he had dropped out of school and hadn’t obtained his high school diploma.

William ended up working as the manager of the butcher shop, and when he arrived in Bogota in 2009, his cousin Brian took him under his wing. The two spent long hours each day baking and selling corn cakes. William wasn’t as close with his brother Wilber and when he hired him at the butchery it strained their relationship.

A Real-Life Telenovela

Jorge shared the puzzling news about the photos with his brother Carlos. He explained that it was like a telenovela and proceeded to show his brother William’s Facebook photos. The brothers couldn’t help but laugh at how strangely similar William looked in comparison to Jorge.

They got to the photo of William and Wilber, who looked very much like Carlos. However, this time, Carlos responded furiously, asking who they were. Perhaps he was in disbelief about the coincidence, and as they dug more into the background of their doppelgangers they discovered that their lookalikes were also born on December 1988.

Trying To Piece It All Together

Growing up, they had always noted that Carlos never resembled Jorge and Diana or even their mother. Jorge and Diana shared their mother’s delicate frame and had her eyes as well as her high cheekbones. On the other hand, Carlos had a solid-built frame, he was taller and had a heavier brow.

It didn’t end at the physical traits. Carlos was also the only one who liked fashion and he wasn’t a fan of the elaborate make-belief games his family enjoyed. They figured that Carlos took after their absentee father. It was the same case for William who never resembled his brother Wilber or the rest of the family.

Untying The Knot Of Their Origin

Janeth was still in the midst of trying to help the two sets of twins figure out if they shared familial ties. William was also intrigued and wanted to find out where the two men who looked like them had been born. He probed Janeth for more information.

William texted Janeth asking if she knew more, and a few minutes later she confirmed that they were born at Materno Infantil. It was the same center where William and his brother Wilber were born. William feared what it all meant. He was worried about his mother's reaction if what he was thinking turned out to be true.

Making The Initial Contact

William shared the information about where Carlos and Jorge had been delivered with Brian and he had an emotional breakdown. He recalled the memories he shared with the mother he knew and now he faced the cruel reality that she wasn’t his biological mother.

He also shared the news with Wilber who said it didn’t matter that they were swapped. William and Jorge soon got in touch via phone call. Immediately, they both realized that their voices didn’t sound the same and William had a Santander accent. Jorge would say that he liked William’s voice and thought that he sounded like a nice person.

Meeting In Person To Figure Things Out

The day finally arrived when the set of strangers met up with each other to figure things out. They picked a location but Carlos couldn’t make it because he had a date he didn’t want to cancel. Jorge asked a friend to go with him.

William showed up with Wilber and Brian, and immediately William and Jorge began to stare at one another. The pair broke out in a smile as they stole glances at each other, taking in just how strange it was to have someone who looked exactly like them. Brian filmed the encounter to give them something to look back on.

Are You Seeing Double?

The twins had a lot to talk about and Jorge tried to make it less awkward by turning his attention to Wilber. He joked that all he needed was a pair of eyeglasses referencing the photo that Wilber had seen of Carlos. Soon, they decided to continue their chat at the apartment Jorge shared with Carlos.

When Jorge showed up with William and Wilber, Carlos at first jokingly refused to open the door saying that he was scared. Eventually, Carlos opened the door and was seeing double as William and Jorge walked in followed by Wilber who was identical to him.

Trying To Wrap Their Heads Around It All

The same scene played out with Carlos and Wilber inspecting each other, and they both exclaimed at the same time “Ay!”. Wilber had a speech impediment which Carlos also had as a child but had managed to overcome through speech therapy.

Jorge began to point out all the similarities he had observed between them. He commented that their hands were different and it was due to the nature of Wilber’s work at the butcher shop as well as his childhood toiling the fields with a machete. Carlos pampered himself with regular manicures, a luxury Wilber couldn’t afford.

Why Did They Split In the First Place Though?

The question they all had was: what happened? It was beyond clear at this point that they had been swapped as kids. They were all premature babies and their medical history showed they were hospitalized again soon after birth when Carlos got sick. They had returned to the Materno Infantil Hospital where one twin from each set got switched with the other.

It isn’t clear how it happened but Jorge thinks that perhaps one or more of their identification wristbands slipped off and a nurse mistakenly made the swap. Their respective mothers then took their babies home, fully unaware of what had happened.

Sharing Much More Than Just Looks

The twins noticed several similarities they shared and it was getting harder to spot the differences. They all shared a love for Atletico Nacional, a popular Colombian soccer team, they each walked similar to the other and William and Jorge both had similar white mobile devices.

The first evening that they met, they ended up talking late into the night. William and Wilber soon left, promising to keep in touch. They each felt the sense of loss that came with now knowing their biological siblings but they resolved on a positive note; that their families had simply gotten bigger.

Reuniting With Extended Family Members

It wasn’t long before the four young men longed to meet members of the other side of the family they never knew existed. The whole ordeal had caused Jorge to slip into depression but Carlos offered him the support he needed. Jorge even ended up tattooing an image of Carlos on his chest next to the one he had gotten of his mother.

The twins had visited Santander multiple times, first for a reunion and then a birthday party hosted for all four brothers at La Paz. The most emotional moment was when Carlos met his biological mother and father, Ana Delina Valasco and Jose del Carmen Canas.

The Country & The City Merge

Carlos found it a bit hard to connect with his biological family which was something that came naturally to Jorge. This became a source of conflict for the two brothers as Carlos also felt Jorge wanted him to admit that being swapped changed his luck in life.

Carlos noted how humble William and Wilber’s childhood home was with no toilet and a wood-burning stove. He had also heard about William and Wilber losing two of their brothers to tragic gun accidents when they were younger. He couldn’t help imagining if he would have survived it all, including the military service, had he been in their shoes.

Revisiting The Past Through Research

The four young men had already shared memories about their respective pasts with each other but they revisited it during the research process. They worked with professor Nancy Segal from the California State University who had been approached by a Colombian psychologist, Yesika Montoya, to conduct the research.

By then, a genetic test had concluded that the pairs were indeed identical twins. The research process involved them filling out questionnaires about their homes, personalities, and lives in general. The siblings learned more about each other through this process. For instance, William found out that Wilber had no intentions of going back to school.

Rewriting Their Lives

A sensitive topic the four men would always talk about is how the other would have turned out if they grew up with their respective biological parents. William had it rough walking with his mother for five hours each time they journeyed to La Paz for grocery shopping.

The two boys dropped out of school at age 12 and while William redid his exams years later, he didn’t get good grades. After his discharge from the military, he attempted to start training as a petty officer by attending leadership courses at the barracks. It didn’t work once his past military training was discovered making him ineligible.

Chasing After Their Dreams

William had quickly become a local celebrity in Santander and on one of their trips to the village, he shared with the rest that he wanted to try his luck at running for City Council. While Carlos didn’t follow Colombian politics too keenly, he was impressed and they all supported William in his bid for the post at La Paz.

William was also back in class at that point, learning about Microsoft Word. He displayed relentless ambition which impressed them all. He was reminded of when he tried pursuing a career as a petty officer and a commanding officer had encouraged him with wise words, saying that, if he persevered he would succeed.

Telling The Story Of The Accidental Brothers

Along the course of their research, Segal told the young men that she intended to write a book telling their story. The University of California published Accidental Brothers which Segal collaborated on with Montoya. The heartwarming story was published in 2018.

Segal has published several other books about this kind of topic, incorporating science with actual stories about twins who have been raised apart. She has also conducted several studies on Chinese twins since 2003. In one incident, she recounted a case of twins who had grown up apart, turning up for a research session each wearing seven rings.

Embracing Brotherly Love

Most separation stories don’t end the same way as it did for these four young men. They collectively chose to build a relationship with each other, and on the evening that they had initially met, Carlos asserted to Jorge that they would always be brothers.

As of 2016, they had plans to buy a property where they would all live together as one happy family! To think that if it wasn’t for Laura walking into the butcher shop where William worked and mistaking him for Jorge, these two sets of twins would have never met. We believe we speak for many people when we say, thank you, Laura!