After obtaining DNA results, Luz went straight to police, and they made the decision to place the girl into state custody. Six years after the fire, Cuevas meets Valerie Valleja (Ana Ortiz), former wife of one of Pedro's cousins, who was also at the party on the day of the fire. Delimar had been sleeping. The fire was discovered shortly after Correa left the house, McDevitt said. I'm surprised this story hasn't appeared on A Current Affair. Angelica said she saw her mom two days later, the day before the dec 15 fire. "He kept saying, "Oh, my God! The city has got great bridges that span across the river, and some of the most amazing looking structures in all of England. a neighbor yelled to him. Correa's best friend, Mary Lou Puchales, said Correa had been hysterical when she discovered that the DNA showed Aaliyah was not hers. To complicate this bizarre tale, Correa, charged with kidnapping and arson, apparently gave birth to a baby at her home three days before the 1997 fire. Personal , Little Girl Lost: The Delimar Vera Story | FAQGO.com- breaking Drama 2008 1 hr 29 min. Zucker, Correa's attorney, said he, too, wants to find her. She was accused of snatching baby Delimar from her cot and setting Cuevas's house ablaze to cover her crime. As she drove off, Vera waved goodbye. He felt like the house burned down as a setup for the kid being kidnapped.". Even by Lifetime standards, the original telepic "Little Girl Lost: The Delimar Vera Story" (which actually premieres on the companion. However, all her suspicions were dismissed as nerves. That was just two weeks after a DNA test confirmed her hunch that the little girl introduced to her at a birthday party as Aaliyah Hernandez was the daughter she thought had died in a fire when she was only ten days old. When she knew who she was and where she was? The medical examiner and fire officials concluded that the child's remains had been consumed by the fire. During their first meeting, Delimar, who is now 6, was hiding under a table when her parents walked into the room, according to Anthony Cianfrani, another attorney for Cuevas. She contacted the police, and an investigation led to a DNA test that proved that indeed, Cuevas and her former partner, Pedro Vera were Delimar's biological parents. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Cuevas will have full custody and the girl's. From Academic Kids Delimar Vera Cuevas (born 1997) is a Puerto Rican girl who was apparently a kidnapping victim. Carolyn Correa apparently gave birth seven days later, at 2:33 p.m. Dec. 12, in her modest four-bedroom yellow frame home in Willingboro. Cuevas saw the girl's smile and said she had the same dimple Delimar had as a baby. "I loved her as my own. When police returned to Correa's home to confront her about the DNA results, she had fled, leaving behind three other children. She reported giving birth at home, listing herself as the attendant. farrah gray The judge found the sentiment far short of any acceptance of the magnitude of her crime. . Most importantly, the woman was happy to be called "mommy." leviticus 18 22 Correa, a mother of three, told Puchales that she, along with Pedro Vera, then took her baby to a friend's house and returned around midnight to pick her up. Cpl. "She took her for modeling photos. Jesus Nieves, who worked with Vera at the Dollar Tree said that Vera told him that he thought his baby was not dead, but had been taken. She has a six-year-old girl with her, named Aaliyah. As Luz watched her play, she became increasingly sure she knew this girl who went by the name Aaliyah. "The girl looked at me and gave me a smile" and waved, he said. She raced up the steps and discovered a fire in the corner of the front bedroom and attempted to fight through flames to find the infant. The authorities then asked Ms. Correa to submit to two DNA tests at a New Jersey laboratory. Cuevas stayed home with Samuel and her two older children, Wilfredo, 11, and Israel, 10. In 2001, Correa had a baby with her current husband, Bryan Busardo. How did the child come to be at the friend's party. They knew how to find Carolyn. She was a very good mother. Cuevas saw the girl's smile and said she had the same dimple Delimar had as a baby. It was a scene she never forgot. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. But the crib was empty. The fire was under control within 14 minutes. She is also found on Instagram with that name. . "She has a look that's more like us than her. Jeffrey Murray, who lives next door, said Ms. Correa doted on the children. But, how? She is being held in Philadelphia on $1 million bail. "I told her, "Look, I have a feeling that that girl is ours,' " he said. " ", Florida migrant flights lawsuit dismissed in wake of Legislature passing law, Editorial Cartoons for Thursday from Times Wire Services, Bucs new coordinator is confident! terry thomas With Judy Reyes, Ana Ortiz, Hector Luis Bustamante, Marlene Forte. Monday, Delimar was the picture of happiness: smiling broadly, waving to photographers and nuzzling her mother, whom she hadn't seen since she was 10 days old. Correa, 42, even paid an independent lab to conduct another DNA test before she was arrested, her attorney Jeffrey Zucker said. Later on, the happy mother, Luzaida Cuevas, took her long-lost child to her home in Philadelphia. Evelyn Vera asked. " Puchales said. Judge Pamela Dembe (search) said she had concluded that while Correa suffered from some depression, she was more manipulative than delusional. "There must be a reason there's so many holes in the story.". From December 2000 through March 2001, Cuevas sought counseling at APM, a social-services agency, according to her therapist. " Farson said. farrah gray They ended up at a cousin's house when Correa told him that she had forgotten her purse at his house, and she left to retrieve it. "I think you're going to find this was not an arson," Zucker said. TV coverage from that night shows Correa at the scene, standing near the ambulance with Cuevas. Prosecutors said she willfully deprived Vera and the girl's mother, Luzaida Cuevas, of their child's milestones from crawling to talking to starting school for six years. She had returned the following night ostensibly to retrieve her purse from an upstairs bedroom. anna karina The friend has since moved and could not be reached. They knew how to find Carolyn. "There are just so many changes this little girl has to face. He had believed for three years that the infant was his, until he requested a paternity test. Why would she want to hire an investigator? In that case, she pleaded guilty to setting a fire in 1996 at a medical office in Hamilton Township where she worked as a file clerk. Everything else, from the girl's disappearance to discovery, is a murky cloud of he-said/she-said contradictions. Foul play was never seriously considered. With no evidence of arson, Heeney said he had no reason to believe the fire was suspicious. Correa was a distant cousin of Luz's husband and had visited the Cuevas home the day before the fire. news.AmoMama.com speaks out against the above mentioned and news.AmoMama.com advocates for a healthy discussion about the instances of violence, abuse, sexual misconduct, animal cruelty, abuse etc. Teresa Santiago, who rented an apartment to Vera and Cuevas about five years ago, said the couple often talked about the daughter they believed hadn't died. Later at the party, Ms. Cuevas snipped off some of the girl's hair while feigning to remove gum on the girl's head. Have you ever played the game where you match a celebrity baby picture to the adult photographs? "He kept saying, "Oh, my God! "You robbed a small girl of a very great deal," Dembe said. "Carol told me she'd seen Luzaida a lot over the years when she had Aaliyah with her, when Carol was in Philly with her family and friends," Mary Lou Puchales said. CNN's Susan Chun and CNN.com's David Osier contributed to this story. March 2, 2004 / 7:54 AM Ms. Correa lives with three of her children and her mother in a peeling yellow ranch house in Willingboro, just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. The test proved he is not her father. Before the results. Why? A six-year-old girl, who was believed to have died as a baby in a house fire in 2004, was kidnapped, finally reunited with her mother, who spotted her at a birthday party. At this point, I really don't know what it is," he said. And representatives of TV interview shows from Oprah to Dateline are seeking to line up guests who'll talk about the story. "She knows she's never going to see Aaliyah again. Top McCarthy aide, House Oversight chair each met with Ashli Babbitt's mother "He suspected some lady sort of close to the family took the child. State registrar Joseph Komosinski said Correa didn't need to present a baby, only an affidavit from the local registrar's office. halloween dinner ideas "It seemed like a 5-foot wall of flames came at me," he said. Puchales understood why. From December 2000 through March 2001, Cuevas sought counseling at APM, a social-services agency, according to her therapist. As it turns out, she didn't need an investigator. wiac The firefighters never considered arson. Firefighters removed a small yellow package with what they thought were Delimar's remains. Have you noticed that when you become an adult, friends who never knew you as a child can still pick your baby picture out of a pile, because some facial proportions have remained constant over the years. / CBS/AP. In January 2003, Pedro Vera's sister, Evelyn, hosted a birthday party for her granddaughter at her Kensington, Pa., home. A woman convicted of kidnapping an infant during a fire, then raising the girl as her own for years, was sentenced Friday to nine to 30 years in prison. Vera adamantly denies this. Correa pleaded no contest in February to kidnapping, interference of child custody and conspiracy. The film depicts the struggle of Luz Cuevas ( Judy Reyes) to find her baby daughter, Delimar Vera Cuevas, who disappeared in 1997 after their house caught fire during a party, just ten days after she was born. display: none; "To me she's the perfect mother," Puchales said. Cuevas begins an investigation into Valleja, and finds out that Aaliyah is in fact Delimar through a DNA test. Last edited on 25 September 2022, at 22:04, Murders of Lauria Bible and Ashley Freeman, "Mom finds kidnapped daughter six years later", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Little_Girl_Lost:_The_Delimar_Vera_Story&oldid=1112345259, This page was last edited on 25 September 2022, at 22:04. I thought for six years Aaliyah was my baby. At first, she likely thought shed seen a ghost. In prison in lieu of $1-million bail, she remains convinced that the girl she raised as Aaliyah Ann Hernandez is hers, although DNA tests prove otherwise, her best friend and her lawyer say. Zucker is unclear about which legal strategy he will use for Correa, although he's considering an insanity defense. 2,870 followers. He still has a lot of interviews and research to do, he said. During a chat, Cuevas confessed that she always had a feeling that Delimar was alive. display: block; The girl, Delimar Vera, now 7, was reunited with her parents in March 2004, after Cuevas' suspicions led to DNA testing that proved the child's identity. Friends describe Correa as an energetic, lively, doting mother. Neighbors tried to stop Cuevas, but she burst into the house looking for her baby. Ms. Correa, 42, of Willingboro, N.J., is a cousin of Ms. Cuevas. jack lemmon She faces a new family environment with complicated new relationships. Delimar Vera was born on December 5, 1997 to parents Luz Cuevas & Pedro Vera. It was me who went," he said. Despite Pedro being present at Delimar's birth & being the person to cut the umbilical cord, he did not sign the baby's birth certificate. It had been a house fire. The 10-day-old girl disappeared from her crib during a December 1997 fire at her parents' Philadelphia home. "The baby's room is on fire! Tags: carolyn correa ( 6 ), delimar vera ( 6 ), delimar vera cuevas ( 4 ), delimar vera where is she now ( 6 ), delimar vera wiki ( 6 ), valerie valleja Carolyn Correa - the kidnapping a Delimar Vega - 4fd89c01cc2e . In January, she attended a birthday party for the child of an acquaintance and was struck by the resemblance of a 6-year-old girl to herself and her other children. "She said, "She always saw me with the little girl, so why did she wait six years to say she's got my daughter?' Truth is stranger than fiction. } else if ( host.indexOf("asia.cnn.com") != -1 ) { Judge Pamela Dembe (search) said she had concluded that while Correa suffered from some depression, she was more manipulative than delusional. Cuevas said she asked Vera for $500 so she could hire a private investigator to find Delimar. All external sites will open in a new browser. 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