Darlene Stosik and Meghan Burns. Darlene is the sister of Vietnam Veteran Private Geoffrey Saunders.
By: Sharon Aron Baron
The mystery of the Vietnam Veteran’s items found in a Coral Springs family’s attic has finally been solved.
Last June, Meghan Burns and Jeremy Teitler discovered medals, photos, awards, and documents belonging to Private First Class Geoffrey Douglas Radcliffe Saunders in their attic while moving out of their home. “We had never put anything in the attic, but for some reason, Jeremy went up there to look and find everything.”
At first, he believed the items belonged to someone in Meghan’s family, but soon, they discovered they were left by someone who had lived there before them. They looked further and found a whole box of family photo albums belonging to Saunders’ mother. They took the items to their new home and started investigating.
Private First Class Saunders was mortally wounded by fire from a North Vietnamese machine gun on April 26, 1968, at the age of 19. Among the papers was a Miami address and photos of him as a little boy and his sister. But where were his mother and sister? Burns looked online and couldn’t find any information, so she turned to us to get the story out.
Fortunately, Saunders’ second cousin Bernadette Flanagan was working on their family tree when her cousin Kathleen Stock saw our articles from Maryland and contacted Saunders’ sister. “I had met Geoffrey, but not his sister,” said Flanagan. “So, my cousin found her and contacted her regarding the items.”
Darlene Stosik, the sister, contacted us, and a meeting was arranged at Starbucks, where Mehgan and Jeremy would be able to return all of the family’s items.
Stosik is three years older than her brother Geoffrey and is an attorney with Conroy Simberg in Miami. She resides in Pembroke Pines with her husband and has a daughter who lives in Tallahassee. She was 21 when Geoffrey was killed and said that they were very close while growing up. It was a difficult time when he died, and she said that her mother didn’t give her many details regarding his death.
Stosik went through the items one by one and told stories about her brother and how he wanted to become a soldier. Since he had dual citizenship with Jamaica and the United States, he was not eligible for the draft, so he enlisted instead.
She believes her mother, who has now passed away, may have moved at one point and may have left some things at the rental property.
Stosik is delighted to be reunited with her brother’s long-lost possessions and her mother’s photo albums.
“We are both very happy that we were able to locate her and that she will have Geoffrey’s medals and the albums and scrapbooks,” said Flanagan. “Thank you for all that you did by printing the articles about him.”
US Congressman Ted Deutch took an interest in this story and, on August 19, 2015, presented Burns and Teitler Congressional Recognition for helping to return the medals to Geoffrey Saunders’ sister.
Related Stories and pictures:
Vietnam Vet’s Medals Found in Local Family’s Attic
Family Finds Vietnam Veteran’s Photos in Attic
Family Gets Congressional Recognition for Returning Vietnam Medals
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