Two young boys who were playing at a pool last summer discovered they looked incredibly similar – they even had the same walk.

But Isaac Noltin, 12, and Dakotah Zimmer, 13, were in for the shock of their lives to discover there was more than met the eye with their similar appearances: they were brothers, The Daily Mail reports.

Dakotah told Isaac that he knew he had a brother he’d never met who was adopted by a woman named Dawn. ‘That’s my mom’s name,’ Isaac responded.

Ms Nolting had met Isaac’s mother several years ago when she was heading out to dinner with her ex-husband. A friend of Ms Nolting’s ex-husband invited them to meet his girlfriend and their newborn son.

The 16-year-old mother had just given birth to Isaac nine days before, and also had a one-year-old son – Dakotah.

Ms Noltin had been a single mother herself, having her own daughter at 19. She told TODAY.com that her maternal instincts kicked in, and she offered to take care of the newborn.


Months passed, and Ms Noltin received a call that Isaac’s biological mother was pregnant again. The woman’s grandmother asked if Ms Noltin wished to legally adopt Isaac. Eighteen months later, and Isaac was legally hers.

Isaac and Dakotah's biological mother died in 2007, and their biological father died a year later.
Dakotah and his older sister, Ashley, live with their's and Isaac's biological grandmother - Debi Bay.

Ms Bay said that Dakotah always knew he had a brother. “I’m just glad they got to meet,” she said of her grandsons’ clandestine encounter.

Though the two didn’t know of each other’s existence for more than a decade, it seems as though they grew up together, Ms Noltin said. “It’s like they were never separated,” she observed.