A US woman who began a search for the son she gave up for adoption almost 50 years ago has discovered he was killed in the Lockerbie bombing in Britain.
Carol King Eckersley, 65, had hoped to find Ken Bissett but is now grieving after learning he died in the1988 atrocity, aged 21.
The headteacher's daughter, who was forced to give up her newborn because she was unmarried, tells her story in a BBC documentary marking 25 years since 270 died when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie in Scotland.
Mrs King Eckersley, from Oregon, began searching for Ken earlier this year after losing her husband. She found a familiar-looking face on a website featuring students from Syracuse University, New York.
She said: "It was his birth date. He looked just like my dad. I called my sister and said, "But why are they only showing part of his life? They've got December 1967 but then they've got December 21, 1988. It finally dawned on me. I said, 'My God, my baby's dead'."
Ken was returning to the US after a term studying in London when the plane exploded. Mrs King Eckersley said: "I gave up Ken for adoption at birth and I never looked for him because I had given my word."
She described having never felt like a proper parent as a result of giving up her son, adding: "I have carried that stigma around. It's a real regret that I'll never, in this life, see him."
