GUILTY PA - Delimar Vera, 10 days old, Philadelphia, 15 Dec 1997

[Maybe So]

My mother ran this one by me yesterday and it really is remarkable that a mother would recongnize a child she only knew for 10 days by a dimple but that's the story I got. Maybe it was instinct and a bit of wishful thinking - whatever it was, it's bittersweet. The mother is reunited with a lost child but in reality, the only mother the child has known is probably going to jail and they will be seperated. These stories always tug at my heart because "what is best for the child?" I think back to when I was six and the last thing I would of wanted is to be torn away from my mother/family.

You know what this reminds me of? Oprah's book choice, was it Deep End of the Ocean?

In this case what is best for the child is to be reunited with her mother. If the other woman raising her was an innocent person who adopted her or who was innocent of a crime it would be different. But, this is a woman who committed a kidnapping and an arson and let another mother suffer through the pain of losing her child. Therefore, I would say that she is not an altogether nice or normal person and should not be raising this child.

I feel bad for the child as she will have a great love for the person who stole her and perhaps resent the real mother.....but let's hope not....let's hope that six is not too old to make a good adjustment.

 

[blueclouds]

girl reunited with mom..
how hard that must be for her little brain. She must be so confused
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Northeast/03/05/kidnapped.girl/index.html

 

[LovelyPigeon]

I'm glad to see that there is an investigation into why this baby was declared dead rather than missing.

This single mother and her reunited child might be entitled to big bucks from some government agencies that let them down for the past 6 years.

 

[blueclouds]

Child went home today (monday). States social services says she's adjusting better than thought.

I cannot see that. This is going to take months for her to get through, if not years. I wonder if she's still able to see her "mom" that kidnapped her. I think cutting her off totally without some closure would be very painful.


http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Northeast/03/08/girl.reunited/index.html

 

[mindys]

Wow, beautiful faces, she will be ok, if she was 9-12 it would be much, much harder for her to adjust.

Blue, I don't think there is ANY way, EVER, they will let the woman who kidnapped her see her again. No Way. I feel for the 'siblings' she was raised with (older than her). Their Mother is in jail charged with a horrendous crime and a big light from their life is gone, the little girl they thought was their sister/their playmate.

Thanks for all the updates, it is just an amazing story. This snipit flipped me out, there was something familiar about the face of the child, her mouth, now I know why!!:

"Aaliyah appeared in print ads for such toy companies as Hasbro and Playskool, and for Target department stores, said her talent agent, Kathy Donahue, who began representing her two years ago. In May, Aaliyah was on a Blue's Clues episode on the Nick Jr. channel."

 

[blueclouds]

"Aaliyah appeared in print ads for such toy companies as Hasbro and Playskool, and for Target department stores, said her talent agent, Kathy Donahue, who began representing her two years ago. In May, Aaliyah was on a Blue's Clues episode on the Nick Jr. channel."[/QUOTE]


Yeah Mindy, I noticed that too. I'm sure we've seen her on TV (for those who have kiddies who watch Nick Jr.) She sure is a sweetie. Still, my daughter is 6 and it would crush her terribly to be ripped apart from us. My husband ended up in a orphanage at 6 years old and it has left serious insecurities that he is still working on. I hope the best. But the "in fighting" and her parents not even talking to eachother leave me worried that they aren't emotionally mature enough to do what's right and leave their issues out of it. Bless this child, Lord.

 

[WasBlind]

I pray this child is getting better acquainted with her biological family whom she was so cruelly snatched from in the night.

What a wonderful story to inspire hope in all of us.

 

[blueclouds]

Parents make movie deal agreement.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040328_962.html

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2004/mar/28/032808967.html

 

[LovelyPigeon]

Just when you think it can't get any more strange...

ODD TWISTS MARK DELIMAR'S TALE

STORY BEHIND 6-YEAR-OLD'S KIDNAPPING AND RECOVERY HAS SO MANY CONFLICTING ELEMENTS, IT'S HARD TO FIND THE REAL TRUTHBy BARBARA LAKER, NICOLE WEISENSEE EGAN & REGINA MEDINA

lakerb@phillynews.com


BEHIND THE heart-tugging saga of Delimar Vera, the little girl who rose miraculously from the ashes, is a sordid web of contradictions, deceptions and secrets.

It's nearly impossible to find two people who agree on any significant event in her life, beginning with the house fire that supposedly killed her in her crib six years ago, when she was 10 days old.

This much is known: Luzaida Cuevas is Delimar's biological mother, not Carolyn Correa, who raised her as her own.

Everything else, from the girl's disappearance to discovery, is a murky cloud of he-said/she-said contradictions.

Meanwhile, there's a missing baby; a fire that may or may not have been accidental; the accusation of an affair between Correa and Delimar's father, Pedro Vera; and two parents who say they suspected the accused kidnapper for years but couldn't find her.

Yet relatives say the parents always knew where Correa lived, 15 miles away in New Jersey. In fact, they say, Correa brought the little girl to several family functions that Cuevas and Vera, her former live-in boyfriend, attended over the years.

Cuevas says she saw Delimar, now 6, and Correa for the first time since the Dec. 15, 1997, fire at a party two months ago, when in fact Cuevas wasn't there, partygoers said. Instead, it appears that she saw Delimar at a birthday party a year earlier, in January 2003, and took a sample of the little girl's hair for DNA analysis, but did not tell authorities for a year.

Furthermore, Cuevas, 31, has offered inconsistent explanations of what happened that mid-December night, when a blaze engulfed the upstairs of her two-story rowhouse on Hurley Street in Feltonville. Her accounts differ from those of Vera, fire officials, neighbors, friends and relatives.

Cuevas and state Rep. Angel Cruz, who first took her story to authorities last month, declined several requests for interviews on the discrepancies.

Anthony Cianfrani, one of Cuevas' attorneys, said, "This is all news to me.

"Even when there's truth, people remember events in different ways," he said. "People don't remember things exactly the same. It's wrong to focus on the victim. If someone's a victim, why ask if they should have caught it sooner?"

Vera and Cuevas say they suspected that Correa, Vera's cousin by marriage, had snatched Delimar. Yet they did not go to Correa's house in Willingboro, N.J., or seek help from police or even Vera's own sister, Evelyn, who was close to Correa.

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. In prison on $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.

Correa, 42, even paid an independent lab to conduct another DNA test before she was arrested, her attorney Jeffrey Zucker said.

"If she didn't think she was the mother, why did she spend $638 for the test?," Zucker asked. Those results aren't in yet, he said. --->>

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/8214423.htm

 

[mindys]

Ok, so where is the other baby - The one they mention she gave birth to (at home) three days before she got Delimar??

 

[LovelyPigeon]

mindys, a "mention" is all I've seen too. I don't know what is supposed to have happened to that child.

Maybe she told people she had a child and then produced the kidnapped baby as her own child?

It's mighty confusing so far.

 

[Toth]

Confusing on the technical issues: low heat, sooty fire yet the think a heater is a skeleton?
Confusing on the social issues: A 'friend' visits momentarily and then a fire breaks out and a window is open when normally it is closed, yet nothing is done?
Hair is obtained yet she waits a year before getting a politician involved and never a forensic laboratory approached by her, only her local representative?

 

[OriginalJerseyGirl]

Philadelphia Daily News | 07/30/2005 | Mom of kidnapped girl suspected dad had role

Luzaida Cuevas (Delimar's mom) is "not surprised" accused kidnapper Carolyn Correa says Pedro Vera (Delimar's dad) gave her their 10-day-old daughter, Cuevas' attorney said yesterday.

"It's always been her suspicion that he was involved," said Anthony Cianfrani, one of her attorneys. "To quote her, she said, 'Oh my God! I knew it.' She just kept saying, 'Oh my God! Oh my God!' I'm anxious to see if there is going to be an arrest."

... Correa has never spoken publicly about what happened that night. Her comments about Pedro Vera's involvement were made to a court psychologist, Albert Levitt, in February and were included in the sentencing document.

... Cianfrani also confirmed that Cuevas said Pedro told her he wished the baby in her belly died when she was pregnant with Delimar and that his name is not on her birth certificate.

Luber, Pedro Vera's attorney, said Pedro, Delimar and Luzaida have been getting counseling together and separately since Delimar was reunited with her family last March.

Luber said Delimar seems to be "adjusting well" but "it's hard to predict the long-term ramifications of this sordid situation."

 

[mysteriew]

Poor kid. What a mess!

 

[Linda7NJ]

The mother didn't speak English very well, no one bothered to listen or get a bi lingual investigator and everyone thought she was in denial at the time of the fire. Very sad

 

[mysteriew]

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.

In court, Carolyn Correa publicly accused birth father Pedro Vera of helping her commit the crime, a charge he denied after the hearing.

The judge acknowledged that who - if anyone - helped Correa remains unknown. Investigators believe there was a second person because the child disappeared from an upstairs crib while Correa was apparently downstairs with Cuevas. Vera was not home at the time.

Prosecutor Leslie Gomez said there is not enough evidence to make a case against anyone else.
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050923/APA/509231200

 

[OriginalJerseyGirl]

This was on our local news last night, and it was mentioned that the father is looking into a lawsuit. I believe it is against the city or the fire department for leading them to believe that their little girl was dead. I'll try to find a link later on, (if I remember).

 

[mysteriew]

Jersey, I think there is a slight mention of that in the article.
Do you think that Daddy was in on it?

 

[tybee204]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/09/23/fire.kidnapping.ap/index.html

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- 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.

In court, Carolyn Correa publicly accused birth father Pedro Vera of helping her commit the crime, a charge he denied after the hearing.

The 10-day-old girl disappeared from her crib during a December 1997 fire at her parents' Philadelphia home. Lacking a body, fire investigators concluded that the fire had consumed the newborn.

"Pedro gave me the baby," Correa, 43, of Willingboro, New Jersey, told the judge. "I loved her as my own. ... I truly believed she was mine."

More at link

 

[Bobbisangel]

I remember when this little girl was found. It was a miracle in my book. Who would ever have thought that a mother would recognize her daughter when she hadn't seen her since she was new born. It seems to me that she got something that would have the girls DNA on it...like a cup or something like that and had it tested. Sure enough it was her daughter...adorable little girl.

I wonder if the husband did help that woman take the baby. If he did why would he do that? I guess it will never be proven one way or the other.

I was so glad this story had a happy ending. I wonder how much of an adjustment it was for the little girl as she believed the kidnapper was her mother.