Ben Thompson
A former beauty queen who was abandoned in an airport as a baby has finally tracked down her biological mother.
Elizabeth Hunterton, who was previously crowned Miss Nevada, has long been searching for her biological parents.
She has documented the journey to find out more about her roots as she scoured social media for her real mom and dad.
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Sadly, she came to discover that her father has passed away 20 years ago.
Fortunately, she has made contact with her mother - and has plans to meet her in the near future.
Talking about the experience on TikTok, Elizabeth told her followers: "I got a lot of feelings happening.
"Probably the overarching one is fear. I'm freaking scared. Of what? Who knows."
Elizabeth, now 44, told People that she was 'about 10 days old' when she was abandoned at the gate of a Nevada airport in January 1980.
"I grew up my entire life trying to figure out what I did in those 10 days that ultimately led to them saying, 'Let's just leave her at the airport'," she added.
She was raised in the city of Reno by a loving family, and went on to lead a successful life.
After being crowned Miss Nevada in 2004, she rose in the ranks of the organization to become CEO.
Despite her incredible accomplishments, Elizabeth still felt a longing to meet her biological family.
Making an account on 23andMe, she began searching.
The first person she tracked down was her uncle, who she phoned up.
He reportedly said to her: "My dear niece, this is the kind of things you hear about in the movies but you never expect it to come to a theater near you."
Unfortunately, her uncle was to be the bearer of bad news - that her dad had died in 2004.
Elizabeth explained: "My birth mother never told my biological father about me.
"When he passed, he became one of my guardian angels.
"I’m very much my biological father’s daughter; we look alike, we talk alike, and the first time I met my biological uncle, he just kept staring at me."
Getting ahold of her mother was a trickier task.
It took a cousin reaching out with the mother's contact details for the connection to be made.
Elizabeth started off with a two-and-a-half page letter.
Her mom then reached out on email and opened up about her past.
Elizabeth recalled: "When I received her email, she shared that she wasn’t able to take care of me as she believed I deserved.
"Therefore, she gave me to her roommate who was supposed to take me to an adoption agency.
"When my birth mother was told that I was actually left at the airport instead, it took quite a toll."
At the time of writing, Elizabeth is gearing up to meet her birth mother in less than two weeks.