45 years later he renounced son, the woman learns that he died in Lockerbie bombing

AP file

Police and investigators look at what remains of the Pan Am 103 flight deck in a field in Lockerbie, Scotland, on December 22, 1988.

By Tracy Connor, writer, NBC News

For 45 years, Carol King-Eckersley fulfilled a promise not seek the child who had been given up for adoption when he was just a teenager, but that changed when her husband died last year and he decided to look for his son.

She knew his name and date of birth, and easily found a reference to it on the Internet — his enthusiasm soon turned to horror as he became aware that was on a page for the victims of the bombing of flight 103, Pan Am over Lockerbie, Scotland.

"So I became a kind of double tragedy," King Eckersley, 45, told a BBC documentary. "He found it and lost it on the same day."

The widow of Oregon was the daughter of 19 years of age from a school principal when she got pregnant and felt under pressure to give up her baby.

The only time that he never saw the child who became Kenneth Bissett was the day that was in the car from the lawyer who organized the adoption, as he left a hospital in New York City.

"There was this little bundle wrapped in the seat front and everything that occurred to me, all the way from Queens in New York in the middle of Manhattan, was 'no llores'", said the BBC.

"I knew that if was crying that he could not do it." I never had it, but now I have to cry for him."

She had promised not to contact him or to interfere in your life, and stayed to until last April, when he made the surprising discovery that had been dead for nearly 25 years.

Bissett was a junior at the University of Cornell 21 years enrolled in the program of study abroad at the University of Syracuse in London when he boarded the flight 103 to New York on December 21, 1988.

A terrorist bomb had made pieces of the aircraft, killing all aboard.

"There was always hope and dream that one day come a blow in the door and opened it and there would be this high handsome gentleman saying: 'Hi, I think you're my mom,'", said the King-Eckersley. "When I saw it in my computer it was as if someone had come to light because that hope was gone."

"I'm still in its semi numb after you lose someone you love", added. "Although I did not have it with me physically, he was always in my heart. I've thought of it practically every day."

The adoptive parents of Bissett had already died and when Syracuse conducted a 25th anniversary Memorial to students killed in October, King-Eckersley attended.

"Was a feeling amazing for me to be included and I feel like Ken and others were guiding the issue in some way," he said in the documentary.

Pearl Harbor attack recalled 72 years after 'day of infamy'

  APHistorical photographs depict the destruction of the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941.By Simon Moya-Smith, Staff Writer, NBC NewsEven 72 years after the attack on Pearl  Harbor that pulled the United States into World War II, numerous states and organizations are commemorating the “day which will live in infamy.”More than 2,400 American troops died in the early hours of Dec. 7, 1941 after the Imperial Japanese Navy swarmed on Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii, hurtling the U.S. into the war.On Friday, Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie and Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell lead a day of remembrance at the USS Arizona Memorial center near the site of the initial attack.The Freedom Bell in Washington, D.C. -- cast in bronze with metal from the World Trade Center -- rang in honor of those who served in the armed forces, NBC affiliate KHNL reports. Skydivers also unfurled American Flags over Pearl Harbor.On Saturday, the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Va., will host Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day with speakers and a laying of a wreath in honor of the fallen members of the military as well as civilians killed.In Little Rock, Ark., bad weather forced the cancellation of ceremonies scheduled there for Saturday.Soon after the attack in 1941, then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the American populace and referred to the day's events as a "sneak attack."“Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 -- a day which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan," said Roosevelt.President Franklin Roosevelt addresses the nation the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor calling it, "a date which will live in infamy." NBC's M. Alex Johnson and Erin McClam and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Florida teen gets 25 years in prison for attempting to murder transgender woman

  By Simon Moya-Smith, Staff Writer, NBC NewsA teenager in Tampa, Fla., was sentenced to 25 years in prison Friday for the attempted murder of a transgender woman, officials said.Tavares Spencer, 16, was convicted in October for shooting Terrence McDonald, a man Spencer believed was a woman.Tampa Police said in April that Spencer was so irate when he learned McDonald was a man that he lured McDonald into a vacant house and shot him, NBC station WFLA reported.McDonald told police that after being shot in the hip, he played dead and watched Spencer flee. But when he stood up, Spencer witnessed McDonald's movement and shot him again.Cora Keaton, Spencer's grandmother who was at Friday's sentencing, pleaded with the judge and said her grandson didn't grow up with a father and lacked a male role model. She said he still has the potential to be "different.""My grandson has a very good heart. He's funny. He's kindhearted. He has a problem," Keaton said.Spencer also spoke at the sentencing and claimed the situation has brought him closer to God."I just pray for mercy. I asked God to forgive me and I feel in my heart he forgave me and I just want help," he said. "I know my actions won't go unpunished. I know that. I just feel like I need help. I feel like I need another chance."Spencer also begged for forgiveness from family members in the courtroom."I want to apologize to the victim and the victim's family. And I want to apologize to my family for causing pain," he said.The judge ruled that Spencer has demonstrated a progressive pattern of criminal behavior and sentenced him to 25 years, WFLA reported.Spencer's dad, who is currently incarcerated, is slated for release next month.

Woman found living 'normal life' in Australia 19 years after abduction as an infant in SC

a Center for Missing and Exploited ChildrenSavanna Catherine Todd as she would have appeared at age 16 in a computer rendering.By M. Alex Johnson, Staff Writer, NBC NewsAn infant girl who was abducted in South Carolina 19 years ago has been found living a "normal life" in Australia, authorities said, and her mother faces federal kidnapping and other charges.Savanna Catherine Todd, now 20, of Isle of Palms, S.C., disappeared in April 1994 as her parents were in the middle of a bitter divorce battle. Until earlier this month, she hadn't been seen since, William Nettles, the U.S. attorney for South Carolina, said in a statement.The statement gave few details, saying only that Todd "has been located and found to be safe, healthy and otherwise living a normal life" and that her mother, Dorothy Lee Barnett, was arrested Nov. 4 in Australia.Barnett — who is now 53 and had been living in Queensland under the aliases Alexandria Maria Canton and Alexandria Maria Geldenhuys — was denied bond Wednesday and was ordered extradited to the United States. No hearing date was entered.A grand jury indictment unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Charleston charges Barnett with one count of international parental kidnapping and two counts of making false statements in passport applications when she sought to return to the U.S. in 2003 and 2004. She faces up to 23 years in prison if convicted.According to police and missing persons records from the original investigation, Savanna was 9 months old when she vanished on April 24, 1994. Her father, Harris Todd, a prominent developer in Kentucky and South Carolina, had custody, but Barnett was allowed supervised weekends of visitation.During one of those visits, Barnett persuaded the visitation supervisor to let her take Savanna to a birthday party unescorted, according to case records. The two never returned.In court documents filed in the divorce proceedings, Todd alleged that Barnett drank heavily while she was pregnant with Savanna and that she had a bipolar disorder for which she refused to seek treatment.Over the years, Barnett had been reported spotted in Texas, Australia, Switzerland, South Africa, Belize and Mexico. Nettles' statement gave no details about how Barnett was eventually found, but it specifically thanked the Australian Federal Police for its assistance.Watch US News crime videos on NBCNews.com

'Hope and hatred collided': Nation pauses to remember John F. Kennedy 50 years after his death

aIn Dallas the cold and windy weather on Friday provided a sharp contrast to the bright sunshine of 50 years ago when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The nation paused to remember Kennedy, and what was most important about his legacy. NBC's Brian Williams reports. By Simon Moya-Smith, Staff Writer, NBC News Benny Snyder / APA crowd gathers at a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy on Friday at Dealey Plaza in Dallas. Thousands of dignitaries, historians and citizens across the nation collectively commemorated the life and legacy of fallen president John F. Kennedy 50 years to the day, and even to the moment, when he was brutally assassinated on the afternoon of Nov. 22, 1963.In Dallas, amid a cold rain, heightened security clad in lime reflective vests met 5,000 ticket holders, mostly in ponchos, to the damp plaza in preparation for a stately commemoration.The event was held adjacent to the exact spot where the 35th president of the United States was fatally wounded.Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings told those assembled that Kennedy's death ushered in a new generation."A new era dawned and another waned a half-century ago when hope and hatred collided right here in Dallas," he said. "Our collective hearts were broken."The mayor unveiled a new addition to the monument at the plaza; the final words from the speech Kennedy was to give that day in Dallas:We, in this country, in this generation, are — by destiny rather than by choice — the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of “peace on earth, good will toward men.” That must always be our goal, and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: “except the Lord keep the city, the watchmen waketh but in vain.”Mayor Mike Rawlings of Dallas, Texas holds a moment of silence in Dealey Plaza, 50 years ago to the moment that President Kennedy was shot.Historian David McCullough, a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, lauded Kennedy for his eloquence and enthusiasm."He was ambitious to make it a better world and so were we," he said. "He was an optimist, and he said so, but there was no side stepping reality in what he said. He spoke to the point and with confidence. He knew words matter. His words changed lives. His words changed history."INTERACTIVE: ‘Everything changed’: Remembering JFK, 50 years pastA sampling from President John F. Kennedy's speeches, in which he spoke about the New Frontier of the 1960s, the search for "the kind of peace that makes life on Earth living," and the importance of civil rights. Cities across the country followed suit in paying tribute to the late president.The Boston Globe reprinted its front page from the morning after the president, a native son, was murdered. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum had a day-long docket of events which included a display of the American flag which once draped Kennedy's coffin.U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder visited Arlington National Cemetery just before sunrise on Friday. Holder spent several minutes bowing his head before the graves of John F. Kennedy, his wife Jackie and two deceased Kennedy children.Social media was ablaze with the hashtag #JFK and Twitter users were re-tweeting quotes and comments from Kennedy's most memorable speeches.President Barack Obama ordered that all flags be flown at half-staff in remembrance of Kennedy.NBC's Brian Williams set the scene, live from Dealey Plaza in Dallas, where 50-years ago President Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald.