ramanth
03-02-2004, 09:38 AM
What are the odds....
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KIDNAPPING_ARSON?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Mar 2, 8:56 AM EST
Police: Baby Believed Dead Was Kidnapped
By JOANN LOVIGLIO
Associated Press Writer
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- An infant believed to have died in a 1997 fire actually was kidnapped and raised by a woman who set the blaze to cover her path, authorities said. Now, the child's mother - who recognized the girl at a party - is eagerly awaiting a reunion.
Police issued a warrant for the arrest of Carolyn Correa, 41, of Willingboro, N.J., on charges of arson, kidnapping and conspiracy. She remained at large Tuesday, authorities said.
"This child, now 6 years old, who has been raised by Carolyn Correa as her own, is not her own," police Capt. John Darby said Monday.
The girl's biological mother, Luz Cuevas of Philadelphia, saw the now 6-year-old girl at a birthday party in January and recognized her by a dimple on her face. A subsequent investigation prompted DNA tests that confirmed the mother's suspicion, police said.
The girl, Delimar Vera, was placed in state custody in New Jersey. It was not clear when she would be reunited with her mother, but Cuevas knows how she will greet her daughter.
"I (will) go and give her a kiss and a hug and say, 'I love you, I love you,'" Cuevas said Tuesday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Delimar was thought to have perished in the Dec. 15, 1997, blaze in her family's home. A body was never found; authorities believed the infant had been consumed by the fast-moving fire.
State Rep. Angel Cruz, who helped the mother contact police after she spotted the little girl, credited "motherly instinct" for connecting mother and child.
Ever since the blaze, Cuevas held on to the belief that her child was somehow alive - partly because it didn't make sense that a window of the infant's second-floor room was found to have been open after the blaze, even though it was the middle of December, Cruz said.
Cuevas told WPHL-TV she recognized the girl at the birthday party from a dimple on her face.
"I said to my sister, `Look, she's my daughter,'" Cuevas said.
It was unclear what brought the child and her mother to the same party, but Correa apparently knew the family through the infant's father, Pedro Vera.
Vera told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Correa stopped in several times after the baby was born, saying she was pregnant. The visits waned after the fire.
Cruz said the girl would be reunited with her mother after authorities in New Jersey break the news to her about what happened.
"I mean, she's 6 years old," he told "Good Morning America." "It will be devastating to this child."
Fire officials at the time blamed the one-alarm blaze on a home-rigged extension cord connected to a space heater.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KIDNAPPING_ARSON?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Mar 2, 8:56 AM EST
Police: Baby Believed Dead Was Kidnapped
By JOANN LOVIGLIO
Associated Press Writer
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- An infant believed to have died in a 1997 fire actually was kidnapped and raised by a woman who set the blaze to cover her path, authorities said. Now, the child's mother - who recognized the girl at a party - is eagerly awaiting a reunion.
Police issued a warrant for the arrest of Carolyn Correa, 41, of Willingboro, N.J., on charges of arson, kidnapping and conspiracy. She remained at large Tuesday, authorities said.
"This child, now 6 years old, who has been raised by Carolyn Correa as her own, is not her own," police Capt. John Darby said Monday.
The girl's biological mother, Luz Cuevas of Philadelphia, saw the now 6-year-old girl at a birthday party in January and recognized her by a dimple on her face. A subsequent investigation prompted DNA tests that confirmed the mother's suspicion, police said.
The girl, Delimar Vera, was placed in state custody in New Jersey. It was not clear when she would be reunited with her mother, but Cuevas knows how she will greet her daughter.
"I (will) go and give her a kiss and a hug and say, 'I love you, I love you,'" Cuevas said Tuesday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Delimar was thought to have perished in the Dec. 15, 1997, blaze in her family's home. A body was never found; authorities believed the infant had been consumed by the fast-moving fire.
State Rep. Angel Cruz, who helped the mother contact police after she spotted the little girl, credited "motherly instinct" for connecting mother and child.
Ever since the blaze, Cuevas held on to the belief that her child was somehow alive - partly because it didn't make sense that a window of the infant's second-floor room was found to have been open after the blaze, even though it was the middle of December, Cruz said.
Cuevas told WPHL-TV she recognized the girl at the birthday party from a dimple on her face.
"I said to my sister, `Look, she's my daughter,'" Cuevas said.
It was unclear what brought the child and her mother to the same party, but Correa apparently knew the family through the infant's father, Pedro Vera.
Vera told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Correa stopped in several times after the baby was born, saying she was pregnant. The visits waned after the fire.
Cruz said the girl would be reunited with her mother after authorities in New Jersey break the news to her about what happened.
"I mean, she's 6 years old," he told "Good Morning America." "It will be devastating to this child."
Fire officials at the time blamed the one-alarm blaze on a home-rigged extension cord connected to a space heater.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.