It’s every mom’s worst nightmare: her child disappearing without a trace. In 1995, that nightmare became reality for Maria Mancia of California one evening when she came home from work. Her 18 month-old boy Steve had vanished. Not only that, all documentary evidence of him was missing, too, including his birth certificate, photos of him, and even an ultrasound printout! All Maria had to remember him by was a black-and-white photo that her sister happened to have.
Steve had almost certainly been kidnapped by his father, Valentin Hernandez. The name was about all the police had to go on and after some searching, the investigation ended up in the cold case file. It was as if the boy and his father had vanished from the face of the earth. Maria worried that she would never see her son again, but still, she held out home that somehow they would be reunited.
After 21 long years, a tip finally came in: a United States citizen named Steve had recently enrolled at a law school in Puebla, Mexico. When investigators contacted him, he said his father was long gone. But based on other information he provided, a DNA test was definitely in order: sure enough, he was Maria’s long lost son!
Steve’s father had told him that Maria had abandoned them, but he soon found out the real story when he returned to California to see his mom for the first time in 21 years. The reunion was incredibly emotional, as you’ll see in the video posted below. Steve also met his half-siblings for the first time. Now he plans to live near his family and transfer to a law school in the United States. As for Steve’s father, there’s a warrant out for his arrest, but nobody has any idea where he is or if he’s even still alive.
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