'Burger King Baby' finds birth mom after Facebook search


A woman who was abandoned as a newborn in the bathroom of a Pennsylvania  Burger King said Tuesday she found her birth mother within three weeks of launching a search on Facebook.

Katheryn Deprill, 27, said she felt "pure joy" when she met her biological mother for the first time Monday in an attorney's office.

"She is better than anything I could've ever imagined. She is so sweet and amazing. I'm so happy," said Deprill, who has become known as the Burger King Baby.

On March 2, Deprill posted a picture of herself on her Facebook page holding a up a sign that said, "Looking for my birth mother. ... She abandoned me in the Burger King bathroom only hours old, Allentown PA. Please help me find her by sharing my post."

The photo was shared more than 30,000 times by Facebook users around the world, and Deprill's story landed in numerous media outlets. That caught the attention of the woman claiming to have abandoned her, and she came forward to attorney John Waldron, who arranged for them to meet.

Deprill said she looks like her mother.

"It looked like I was looking in a mirror," she said.

Deprill, an EMT and married mother of three who lives outside Allentown in South Whitehall Township, said she embraced her mother when they met.

"I got the hug that I had wanted for the last 27 years, and that broke the ice," she said. "I asked if I could have it, and she said, 'absolutely,' and just held her arms open, and the rest is history."

The pair met for about four hours and exchanged contact information. Deprill said they plan to meet again but she won't release her mother's name publicly.

The attorney who arranged the meeting told WFMZ-TV that the woman said that, as a teenager, she was raped while traveling abroad and became pregnant. The woman said she hid the pregnancy from her parents and, when she gave birth, felt she could not take her newborn to the hospital. [WFMZ-TV]

Waldron said the woman had also been looking for her daughter and that she was filled with regret, but Deprill forgave her "110 percent, absolutely."

AP contribued to this report.