A woman was jogging with her three dogs, until she found a baby buried alive with an attached umbilical cord in the foothills of Altadena on May 16, 1998.
On that day, Azita Milanian decided to go for a run with her dogs instead of a night out dancing. Her dog Tango started to sniff and scratch a pile of dirt. Milanian saw two protruding feet and thought it belonged to animal.
When she heard a cry, she dug out a shallow grave and found Michael Christian Whitaker wrapped in a blue towel with his umbilical cord attached.
After getting disconnected from a few 911 calls, she ran to the roadside to flag down a driver for help before returning to the baby and getting dirt out of his mouth and nose. The driver told the officers at the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department about the baby.
Although she isn’t his biological mother, the cord of destiny between Milanian and Whitaker brought them back together on May 16, 20 years later.
The mother of Whitaker’s friends emailed his story to KIIS FM radio and asked for a 23andMe kit to find more about Whitaker’s ancestry. He agreed to reveal his results on “On Air with Ryan Seacrest.”
Milanian, Rodriguez, and Whitaker embraced after meeting on the set.