The Hindu : A mother meets her daughter

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 06, 2004

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A mother meets her daughter

MOUNT HOLLY, MARCH 5. A judge has approved a plan to grant custody to the biological mother of a six-year-old girl who was allegedly snatched from her crib as a newborn. ``I'm going to have her pronto — very, very soon,'' Luz Cuevas, the mother of Delimar Vera (in picture), said on Thursday.

Shortly after the Family Court hearing ended, the girl and her biological parents were reunited.

The little girl's case was thrown into the spotlight on Monday, when authorities in Philadelphia announced they were charging the only mother she has ever known — Carolyn Correa — with kidnapping, arson and 13 other crimes. The police said Ms. Correa took the 10-day-old baby from her crib in December 1997 and then set fire to the home to cover her tracks. The infant was thought to have been consumed in the flames. The biological mother told the authorities she believed Delimar had been kidnapped, but nothing was done.

Meanwhile, Ms. Correa, 42, named the baby Aliyah Hernandez and raised her in Willingboro, New Jersey, not far from Philadelphia.

Six years passed before Ms. Correa, the little girl and Ms. Cuevas all wound up at the same birthday party, where Ms. Cuevas said she had a hunch Aliyah Hernandez was really her own daughter. In order to obtain possible DNA evidence that Ms. Cuevas thought would prove the girl was hers, Ms. Cuevas pretended there was gum in the child's hair so she could pull off several strands. The strands were later turned over to the police.

But tests were unable to produce any DNA because the strands lacked roots or follicles. Authorities then took swabs of saliva from the girl, Ms. Correa and the couple who were believed to be the little girl's biological parents.

Within days, the authorities were able to prove that Ms. Cuevas and Pedro Vera were the biological parents. Ms. Correa was charged this week, and is being held on $1 million bail. Delimar Vera has been in the care of New Jersey's Division of Youth and Family Services. According to the custody plan approved by a court, Ms. Cuevas and Mr. Vera will share legal custody but the girl will live with the Cuevas couple.

A child psychologist would be present at the initial meetings. Officials have said they need to proceed cautiously because the girl has grown up knowing the woman charged with her kidnapping as her mother.

Another complication in the new mother-daughter relationship is that Delimar does not speak Spanish and her mother speaks very little English. Ms. Cuevas said she intended to improve her English and hopes her daughter will learn Spanish. She also said at first she would call the girl Aliyah, the name she has been known as virtually all of her life.

Ms. Cuevas, 31, said she had been told her daughter was excited to meet her. ``I don't think she understands,'' everything that had happened, Ms. Cuevas said, however. — AP

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