VOLUME 11, NO. 1     MAY 1997

Are you my brother?

On Feb. 7, 1997, Lee Kenseth Abel '95's search for his brother, Steven Bell, ended in an emotional embrace as the two met for the first time at Bell's home in Spring Valley, N.Y. The Cambodian brothers, who did not know of each other's existence until adulthood, both immigrated to the United States after enduring years of imprisonment and forced labor under the brutal reign of the Khmer Rouge. Abel, who was separated from his family at age 5, has waged a relentless quest for survivors of the genocide that claimed millions of lives during the 1970s.

Three years ago, Abel tracked down his birth mother in a remote Cambodian village. (See "The Return of the Golden One," in the Summer 1994 WPI Journal.) For the next three years, he scoured the United States to keep a promise made to his mother - to find his half-brother, her son from a previously secret first marriage. A former U.N. interpreter, he was last known to be living in Rhode Island under the name Steven Bell.

Initially, that was all Abel had to go on. His search involved hundreds of letters, long-distance phone calls, and even a private detective - all at his own expense. "I was so determined to find this guy," says Abel. "I would travel anywhere if I thought someone might know him. I posted fliers in Cambodian communities. I called all the Bells listed in the phone book, but they were all too old or too young to be my brother."

There were many promising leads, including papers left behind at Bell's Providence, R.I., apartment, which he vacated in 1992 with no forwarding address. Abel followed every trail as far as he could, but Bell is a very common name, and Abel did not know his brother's original Cambodian name, or when he obtained citizenship. WPI News Service Director Neil Norum even referred the case to the television show Unsolved Mysteries, but Abel says, "They were more interested in getting a story than in helping me."

"I looked at the information the detective offered, and what he would charge for further inquires, and I decided it wasn't worth it," Abel says. "I had paid enough. Finally, I realized I had no choice but to tackle this myself."

Abel wrote to his mother again, asking for older correspondence, to delve further back into his brother's past. The information she sent included a name and address of a Cambodian immigrant who had once written to her saying he knew Steven Bell. Abel wrote to this person, enclosing photocopies of family photographs to prove the veracity of his quest. Four days later, there was a message on his answering machine, "Hi, my name is Steven Bell. I'm supposed to be your brother."

Within a week of the call, the two were reunited, getting acquainted after a lifetime of separation. Abel has written to his mother with the good news, but has not yet received a reply. Mail service in Cambodia is slow and unreliable, especially in rural areas.

Ironically, Bell and Abel were in the same city years ago, when Bell came to Worcester for a Cambodian New Year's celebration while Abel was still a student at WPI. "It was just a simple letter that finally found him," Abel laughs. "The information age didn't really help me. All this fancy data search and other stuff just didn't pay off."

Joan Killough-Miller

---