For most of his life, an unsolved mystery lingered in the back of Petersburg police Sgt. Chris Walker's mind.
Then one day at work, he began hearing a name that rang familiar: Claiborne Hamilton -- a Richmond police veteran and newly hired detective at the Petersburg Bureau of Police.
The name was similar to one revealed, after the death of the grandmother who had raised Walker, as that of his real father. Walker researched the name on the Internet but didn't find anyone who fit the profile.
But Detective Clay Hamilton did.
Following up on his hunch, Walker visited Hamilton's desk and casually asked him some questions. He found that Hamilton was 53, about the right age and -- matching up with his mother's account -- grew up in the Richmond area, hung out with people in Goochland County and dated a girl named Billie Joe.
Walker, 37, spoke to his mother on the phone that night and told her generally about Hamilton. She insisted that his father's first name was Clayton, not Claiborne.
Walker then asked if she knew a Billie Joe Walker.
"There was a pause on the phone, and she said, 'That's your dad,'" Walker said, referring to Hamilton. Billie Joe was his mother's old nickname, coming from Bobbie Gentry's 1967 song "Ode to Billie Joe."
Walker then called Hamilton and told him, "I think you're my father."
"It shocked me, but I always believed that there may have been a possibility at the time," Hamilton said. "When I first talked to him on the phone, I cried."
Results of a DNA test came back a week and a half ago and confirmed that the two Petersburg police officers, who never met each other before working together, are father and son.
Hamilton said he had a brief romance with Walker's mother when he was 15. She was a few years older and separated from her husband at the time.
Hamilton said he lost touch with her after she became pregnant, went back to her husband and moved away. He said he tried to locate her and the baby he suspected was his son, but was unsuccessful.
Despite the separation, Hamilton and Walker followed similar paths in life, including stints in the military and choosing to work for urban police departments despite growing up in the suburbs.
They have spent the past month getting to know each other's families: Walker's wife and 5-year-old son, and Hamilton's wife, 12-year-old son, 35-year-old daughter and granddaughter, 8. They plan to have a family get-together that will include Walker's mother.
"I feel like we've got a lot of time that we've missed. Of course you can't ever make up for lost time. We're going to do what we can to make it up," Hamilton said.
Walker credits faith, as well as fate, for bringing them together.
"There's no hard feelings from me because I knew he did everything he could to locate me. He's my dad, and I love him, and I look forward to a lot of years with him," Walker said. "God works in mysterious ways."
Contact Melodie N. Martin at (804) 649-6290 or mmartin@timesdispatch.com.
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