'I was told my baby died in house fire - six years later I saw her at birthday party'
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A mother who was told her new born girl had died in a fire received the shock of her life six years later when she saw her at a party. Mum Luzaida Cuevas was distraught after being told her 10-day old child Delimar had died in a fire. But she had in fact been kidnapped by Carolyn Correa, a cousin by marriage via Delimar's father Pedro.
Correa went on to raise the child as her own and named her Aaliyah Hernandez. A new documentary 'Back from the Dead: Who Kidnapped Me?' shows the twisted ordeal. While no body was found, authorities told Delimar's parents that she had died in a December 1997 fire that was blamed on a heater's extension cord. But Luzaida believed her daughter was alive.
She held firm to her belief as when she the fire tore through the family home, the mum raced to where Delimar had been sleeping and found an empty cot. The window was wide open at the time. Firefighters needed to drag her from the home as she screamed that her baby had been taken.
Delimar, now 26, told The Sun: "People think that you get kidnapped and in the aftermath, everything is rainbows, butterflies and life moves on. But sadly, that’s not the truth. There’s a lot of work that goes into repairing those relationships and moving on.".
She grew in New Jersey with Correa and alongside her owner children. Delimar added: "I never thought I looked like her [Correa]. Her daughter was more fair skinned like myself. So, I always thought me and her daughter look alike. I just don’t look like my mum.".
Then in 2004, Luziada attended a birthday party and found a girl that she believed looked just like her daughter. Utilising her quick thinking, she acted as though the girl had chewed gum and offered to fix it, pulling out strands of hair in the hope of getting a DNA sample.
