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.
AP
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