Man claims to be missing child who disappeared in New York 50 years ago

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More than 50 years after a two-year-old boy disappeared from outside a bakery in suburban New York, a man from Michigan has come forward to claim that he was the missing child.

The missing boy's father, Jerry Damman, said he was hopeful the man is his son.

Steven Damman in an undated file photo. Damman was last seen on 31 October 1955 outside a bakery on Long Island, New York. Photograph: AP Damman was working at Mitchell air force base on Long Island when his son disappeared. His then-wife, Marilyn, left her son and seven-month-old daughter, Pamela, waiting outside a bakery while she went inside to shop on 31 October 1955, according to Smith and news accounts from that year.

After 10 minutes, Damman's mother left the bakery but couldn't find the pram or her children – the pram, with only her daughter inside, was found around the corner from the market a short time later, authorities said.

More than 2,000 people searched for 28 hours without finding Steven. The county's assistant chief inspector, Leslie W Pearsall, called off the search, saying that the boy's disappearance had become "a case for detectives only," according to a story in The New York Times.

The boy's family received a ransom note in mid-November and Steven's parents also made a public plea to the kidnappers at the time, saying Steven suffered from anaemia and asking that he receive medicine that included vitamins, aspirin and a tonic, the Times reported. But the child was never found.

Authorities have not released the identity of the Michigan man who approached Nassau County police and federal authorities over the past few months, and said he believes he is Steven Damman.

The man is said to believe that he never fit in with the family he grew up with, and to have thought he might be a missing person, and learned of the case by researching cases around the nation.

The case was referred to the FBI and authorities are awaiting DNA results to determine if the man's claim is true, Smith said.

Sandra Berchtold, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Detroit, declined to comment on the case. But the family of Steven Damman believe the man could be their son.

"To a certain extent this would probably close it," said Jerry Damman, who lives on a farm near Newton, Iowa, about 30 miles east of Des Moines. "It's very possible."

Damman and his wife, who is not Steven Damman's mother, said they believe the man might have stopped by their farm in the autumn. His sister, Pamela, also got a visit from the same man, they said.

"She looked at this guy, and he looked like Jerry," said Charlotte Damman, who has been married to Jerry Damman for nearly 50 years.

Damman said he tried to call the man twice since a report of his claim was first published in the New York Daily News.

"Naturally you're hopeful," he said. "Just like a death gives you closure, you know sometimes, it will give you closure to know what happened."

I hope they do a follow up on this - I want to know now