One of the worst possible things that a parent could experience happened to Maria Mancia back in 1995. She returned home from work one day to discover that her 1-year-old son, Steven, had disappeared without a trace from her home in California. She quickly realized that her little boy had been kidnapped, and to make matters even worse, the perpetrator was someone she knew very well…
When Maria Mancia came home that day in 1995, she couldn’t find her son, Steven, anywhere. And not only that—every trace of the boy’s life, from documents like his birth certificate to all of Maria’s pictures of him (including a photo of his ultrasound), had vanished from the face of the earth.
It turned out that Steven had been kidnapped by Maria’s ex-boyfriend and father of the child. But beyond that, no one had any idea where Steven had been taken to. All that was left of him was a photo that his aunt sent Maria so she could remember her son’s face and police could use it to help get the boy back.
In the years ahead, this worn, black-and-white image of Steven was the only thing Maria had to hold on to the memory of her son.
Obviously, Maria and the police wouldn’t give up on Steven. They’d find the boy again, no matter how long it would take. And one day, 21 years later, something unexpected happened in a far-off city that would become a major break in the case.
A US citizen named Steven had enrolled to study law at a school in Puebla, Mexico. When the police received this information, they decided to contact the young man to learn more about his background.
They asked Steven about his biological father, and were told he was gone. They matched the information they received from Steven to the criminal investigation they had started many years ago. And after conducting a DNA test, it was clear: Steven was Maria’s son who had been missing for 21 years.
“She had never given up after all these years, but had accepted the fact that she may never know her son. To be able to return him to his country and his mother is an indescribable honor,” said police officer Karen Cregg.
Steven was totally unaware that he had been kidnapped as a little boy. He didn’t know that his mother was alive and that she’d devoted years of her life searching for him. And also didn’t know that he had four siblings who were waiting to meet him.
But when they finally met, it was obviously that Steven and Maria’s feelings were so strong they couldn’t hold back the tears.
“I lived all these years without my mother, then to find out she’s alive in another country, it was emotional,” says Steven.
Watch the emotional reunion between Steven and his mother in the video below:
If you were as moved as I was by this amazing reunion, please share this video that others can see it, too!
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