Long-lost twins reconnect after 47 years through ID card registry

Mai Thi Ben, 59, was informed by police that she had the exact same face as another woman in Phu Yen, who lives about 175 kilometers away.

Police of Binh Dinh’s Hoai Nhon Town on Thursday said they were cooperating with police of Phu Yen’s Tuy An District to help Ben reunite with C, her long-lost twin sister.

Previously on Monday, police of Hoai Nhon informed Ben she could not have an ID card made since her face matched that of C, who got her card back in March.

Thinking they may be twins, police visited Ben’s home, while requesting police of Tuy An District to contact the other woman. Both were later confirmed as twins.

Ben said her family was poor, so her parents had sent her to live with a relative in Binh Dinh when she was 5-6 years old. When she was 7-8 (in 1971), Ben tried to return home in Phu Yen. She got lost along National Highway 1, and a woman who sold rice paper took her home.

After simultaneously working and studying, she got married at 18.

Ben said she missed her family and wanted to find them, but could not remember their exact location. After years had passed, she decided to abandon her search.

Ben has not been able to return to her hometown as she is currently receiving medical treatment while living with her children in Vung Tau in the south.