Long-Lost Sisters Reunite 5 Decades After Dad Murdered Mom: ‘Thought I Was Going to Die Without Knowing You Again’ By Brian Anthony Hernandez

Two long-lost sisters, who were separated five decades ago after their father murdered their mother, are making up for lost time.

Having not seen each other since they were 6 and 8 years old, Janet Brocklehurst, 57, and Theresa Fazzani, 59, recently reunited thanks to a Facebook group that reconnects family members, according to the BBC.

Fazzani admitted to the outlet that she didn’t “want to die without knowing whether they”re still alive,” referring to Janet and the other siblings she was separated from more than 50 years ago.

In the mid-1970s, their dad, Malcolm Barnes, was imprisoned after he bludgeoned their 30-year-old mom, Helen Barnes, to death with a hammer in Newport, Wales. When Fazzani soon learned that Malcom wasn’t her biological dad, her family took her away from Janet and her other sisters, who were adopted and moved to Somerset, according to the BBC.

Brocklehurst always resisted reconnecting with Fazzani because she thought she would be upset that “my dad killed her mum,” per the BBC.

Meanwhile, approaching 60 and desperate for answers, Fazzani asked the Facebook group for help searching for her sisters. In July 2025, a group member replied, “I think I’ve found your sisters.”

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Soon after, Brocklehurst, who now lives in South Wales, called Fazzani and recalled telling her long-lost sister, “Oh my God, I thought I was going to die without knowing you again.”

Fazzani described the call to the BBC as “the maddest experience” in a good way, adding, “It was just really exciting.”

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In August, the sisters reunited in person in Cardiff.

“I stepped off the train and [Brocklehurst] was just marching up the platform and it was just, ‘Oh my God, I just can’t believe that it’s you, that you’re here,’ ” Fazzani recalled to the BBC.

“We just found it so easy to talk to each other and so easy to get on,” Brocklehurst remembered, adding, “Every day I’m plotting like when we’re going to see each other next.”

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