A
California mother, Maria Mancia, whose son was abducted in 1995 reunited with
him on Thursday after 21 years.
The
last time Mancia saw her son was when he was just 18 months old and only had a
single photo of him.
Her
son, Steve Hernandez, who is now 22 years old, was found living in Puebla,
Mexico, by investigators in the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Child
Abduction Unit and on Thursday morning was brought to the U.S. to meet his
mother for an emotional reunion.
"Now
this anguish I've carried is gone now that I have my son back," Mancia
said. "I spent 21 years looking for him not knowing anything."
The
SBC District Attorney's Child Abduction Unit had been looking for Hernandez
through the years, searching for him in several states until investigators
received a strong tip in February that he was in Mexico.
According
to authorities, his father, Valentin Hernandez, is said to be missing and
believed to be dead.
Investigator
Karen Cragg, who led the search, said they had to approach Steve Hernandez
delicately.
"We
used a ruse to contact him. We told him we were investigating his father and we
needed his DNA to help locate his father," Cragg told The Associated Press
on Thursday. "We didn't want to scare him off. We weren't sure what the
circumstances were down there. We had to tread very carefully."
According
to police reports, Mancia and Valentin Hernandez had been living with their son
Steve Hernandez in Rancho Cucamonga, California, in 1995 but were having
relationship problems. Mancia said she came home from work one day to find both
the elder Hernandez and their son missing and all of their photos of the boy,
including an ultrasound gone as well.
She
immediately reported the boy missing and the investigation had been active ever
since, first with the Sheriff's Department, then with DA's investigators.
Once
investigators located Steve in Mexico, DNA sample was obtained in February to
acertain that he was truly Mancia's son.
Once
they got a positive match, Cragg drove straight to Mancia's house to give her
the good news.
"She
began to cry. She said she couldn't believe he was still alive."
Because
Steve Hernandez is a U.S. citizen, there were no immigration troubles returning
him to the U.S., Cragg said. He had no personal documents at all, but his
mother had his birth certificate and more.
The
boy's father had told him that his mother abandoned the two of them.
Steve
Hernandez said:
"I
lived all these years without my mother, then to find out she's alive in
another country, it's emotional."
He
said he plans to stay in the U.S. and hopes to attend law school, which he
already started in Mexico. He hugged his crying mother and wiped tears from her
eyes.
Source:
AP
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