Cuevas said she asked Vera for $500 so she could hire a private investigator to find Delimar. / CBS/AP. Firefighters removed a small yellow package with what they thought were Delimar's remains. Prosecutor Leslie Gomez said there is not enough evidence to make a case against anyone else. The fire was discovered shortly after Correa left the house, McDevitt said. Evelyn Vera asked. Luzaida. Pedro Vera visits as much as he wants, though he said he has to call first. "He told me he thought he knew who did it," Nieves said. She stood there dumbfounded, sustaining burns on her face. 2004 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. It would emerge throughout the trial that Carolyn had been dating a man named Andre Moore, and told him she had fallen pregnant. At this point, I really don't know what it is," he said. "And why did they wait six years? Farson, 29, said he grabbed a garden hose, crawled across porch roofs, smashed the closed bedroom windows and tried to put out the fire. "She said, "She always saw me with the little girl, so why did she wait six years to say she's got my daughter?' "To me she's the perfect mother," Puchales said. PHILADELPHIA 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. The girl bears a resemblance to Cuevas and she suspects it is Delimar. She said he told her he didn't have the money. Since the reunion, Cuevas has severed contact between Delimar and people the youngster knew as her grandmother and brothers. Cuevas, who speaks halting English, contends she repeatedly told firefighters that Delimar was not in the room and was missing. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, Charged with arson, kidnapping and 13 other counts, she has been held on $1 million bail since her arrest on March 2. She says she recognized the child on her dimples. 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In January 2003, Pedro Vera's sister, Evelyn, hosted a birthday party for her granddaughter at her Kensington, Pa., home. Soto is said to be 21 years old however, his birth . Correa briefly apologized in court Friday for "the confusion" she caused the two families. In the probable-cause affidavit and in interviews, Cuevas said that while Correa was visiting, she heard an explosion from upstairs. And on september 25 2005 Correa received a nine to thirty year sentence for kidnapping, Delimar Vera was returned to her family and is now at home with her mother. david pollock Luzaida Cuevas in a portiart [left], Luzaida Cuevas and her daughter, Delimar Vera [right] | Photo: Getty Images. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. About an hour and a half later, she returned upset, Vera said. She chopped off five strands and carefully placed them in a napkin. That's something I need to ask Pedro and her. She was at a children's birthday party when she observed that one of the kids' dimples were similar to hers. Puchales talked to the friend, who confirmed the story and plans to tell Zucker, Puchales said. She took her for all kinds of stuff. Have you ever played the game where you match a celebrity baby picture to the adult photographs? When he heard a commotion, Farson went outside to find an orange glow in an upstairs bedroom of Cuevas' house. During a recent prison visit, Correa asked Puchales for a favor. Prosecutor Leslie Gomez said there is not enough evidence to make a case against anyone else. The friend has since moved and could not be reached. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Investigators believe there was a second person because the child disappeared from an upstairs crib while Correa was apparently downstairs with Cuevas. "We're happy now. The fire was believed to have been caused by a homemade extension cord attached to a space heater near Delimar's crib. Later on, the happy mother, Luzaida Cuevas, took her long-lost child to her home in Philadelphia. "There are just so many changes this little girl has to face. Correa, 42, even paid an independent lab to conduct another DNA test before she was arrested, her attorney Jeffrey Zucker said. PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A fire that authorities six years ago thought killed a 10-day-old girl was a ruse to kidnap the infant, Philadelphia police said Monday. Delimar Vera, who police believe was kidnapped when she was only a few days old, was reunited with her mother, Luz Cuevas, on Monday. In an interview, Cuevas said this party occurred in January, two months ago, not a year earlier. 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. He still has a lot of interviews and research to do, he said. 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. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. But the crib was empty. Vera was not home at the time. We also encourage everyone to report any crime incident they witness as soon as possible. The mother and child were reunited six years after the fire incident at the local authority offices in Burlington County, New Jersey. And, mostly importantly, who had taken her? He still has a lot of interviews and research to do, he said. philippians 4 6 7 Delimar Vera Little Girl Lost - Delimar Vera Story From Academic Kids Delimar Vera Cuevas (born 1997) is a Puerto Rican girl who was apparently a kidnapping victim. "I told her, "Look, I have a feeling that that girl is ours,' " he said. " Defense lawyers argued that Correa suffered from a psychotic condition in which women believe they are pregnant (search), and came to believe the baby was hers. Correa pleaded no contest in February to kidnapping, interference of child custody and conspiracy. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. She has my coloring. 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. "You robbed a small girl of a very great deal," Dembe said. The police mentioned that Delimar turned into killed withinside the hearthplace. Toggle Comments. With no evidence of arson, Heeney said he had no reason to believe the fire was suspicious. The judge found the sentiment far short of any acceptance of the magnitude of her crime. Can you ask Aaliyah to take the last pictures to keep for memories?" 2,870 Followers, 203 Following, 19 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Delimar Vera (@delimar_vera) delimar_vera. Evelyn Vera, hosted a birthday party for her three-year-old granddaughter; she invited Luz, who was now Pedro's ex . When she knew who she was and where she was? "There's got to be more to the story than is on the surface. That's something I need to ask Pedro and her. The girl was Cuevas' only daughter, Delimar Vera -- the girl everyone else believed had perished in a house fire when she was only 10 days old. Those results aren't in yet, he said. Legal Statement. "From that moment, that's when I got the feeling.". However, all her suspicions were dismissed as nerves. Please fill in your e-mail so we can share with you our top stories! With Judy Reyes, Ana Ortiz, Hector Luis Bustamante, Marlene Forte. Luz's "vanished" child came to a birthday party with one Carolyn Correa. As it turns out, she didn't need an investigator. 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 could never make contact because there was always a machine or something," he said. Plus go in the chance to win $50? Correa's best friend, Mary Lou Puchales, said Correa had been hysterical when she discovered that the DNA showed Aaliyah was not hers. He called Correa's charges against him "crazy things that she's talking about.". Florida executes Donald Dillbeck for 1990 Tallahassee murder, Held without charge, a Miami inmates unborn child asks court for release in odd case, One step led Tampa runner, Gasparilla entrant to big weight loss, huge life gains, Hillsborough must right-size its school system | Editorial, Lesbian pastor acquitted, may continue in ministry. Correa's best friend, Mary Lou Puchales, said Correa had been hysterical when she discovered that the DNA showed Aaliyah was not hers. She reported giving birth at home, listing herself as the attendant. }else { The officers sifted through the debris but found mostly dry wool particles, which they were told resemble human ashes, but only those burned at 1,000 degrees for an hour or longer, McDevitt said. Correa was arrested. Vera admits seeing the girl at a baby shower for his niece four years ago. Later at the party, Ms. Cuevas snipped off some of the girl's hair while feigning to remove gum on the girl's head. The child had been alive all those years. In 2004 Aaliyah was returned to her birth mother, who shed never known, and renamed Delimar. Carolyn Correa apparently gave birth seven days later, at 2:33 p.m. Dec. 12, in her modest four-bedroom yellow. . "He suspected some lady sort of close to the family took the child. The girl now lives with Cuevas and her three siblings. "The girl looked at me and gave me a smile" and waved, he said. Luz now lives with her four children one who she spent half a decade grieving for. Why? Flying bug found at Walmart turns out to be rare Jurassic-era insect Puchales understood why. 2009-10-30 @ Festival 8, Dexter S04E06 HDTV XviD-SYS | IRFree.com Tori Hamiltons Blog is discussing. She came out in tears. 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. The judge acknowledged that who if anyone helped Correa remains unknown. We raise awareness about these issues to help potential victims seek professional counseling and prevent anyone from getting hurt. Police officials said the deception that Ms. Correa carried out for years began to unravel in January when the girl's natural mother, Luz Cuevas, saw the girl at a birthday party. After obtaining DNA results, Luz went straight to police, and they made the decision to place the girl into state custody. In court, Carolyn Correa (search) publicly accused birth father Pedro Vera of helping her commit the crime, a charge he denied after the hearing. "I saw a car seat with clothes in it _ no baby.". 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. Carrying two bags of toys and wearing a smile, it was Pedro Vera's turn Tuesday to spend time with the 6-year-old girl a DNA test has proved is his daughter. document.write('Tuesday, March 2, 2004 Posted: 1319 GMT ( 9:19 PM HKT)
<\/span>'); .component--type-recirculation .item:nth-child(5) { Correa, 42, is accused of stealing Delimar as a baby, setting a fire to cover up the abduction, and raising her as her own child. Each time, she insisted her baby was in the room, he said. It is not known when the girl and Ms. Cuevas will be reunited, Mr. Williams said. "Pedro gave me the baby," Correa, 43, of Willingboro, N.J., told the judge. } else if ( host.indexOf("edition.") He said he believes the baby she had in December 1997 was either stillborn or she had a miscarriage. Truth is stranger than fiction. Six years after the fire incident, Cuevas saw something spectacular. Mr. Moore said he learned that the girl was not his child in 1999, when he requested a paternity test. In 1998 she was sentenced to five years' probation for setting a fire in a Hamilton, N.J., medical office where she had worked as a billing clerk. Cuevas said that, convinced the child was Delimar, she told the girl that she had gum in her hair and yanked a few strands. "She was raised with us, in the family. "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. A woman who police officials said kidnapped a newborn six years ago, set fire to the mother's house to make her believe that the baby girl had died in the blaze, and then raised the child as her own, surrendered to authorities on Tuesday. "There's got to be more to the story than is on the surface. Although Cuevas escaped the fire with her other children, Delimar was believed to have been killed in the blaze. Please enter valid email address to continue. The authorities then asked Ms. Correa to submit to two DNA tests at a New Jersey laboratory. he said he asked. Delimar Vera, a child, was believed to have perished in a house fire in 1997 when she was just ten days old. "She told me that Luzaida gave her a pill because Carol had pain," Puchales said. speaks out against the above mentioned and. The medical examiner and fire officials concluded that the child's remains had been consumed by the fire. "If she didn't think she was the mother, why did she spend $638 for the test?" Evelyn Vera said she has called Cuevas but has not heard back from her and hasn't had a chance to question her brother. 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. 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. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Zucker asked. "I told her, "Look, I have a feeling that that girl is ours,' " he said. " But, how? Vera arrived as Correa and Aaliyah were leaving. Why would she want to hire an investigator? ". Want to help Mamamia with some new ideas? The girl is now in a New Jersey foster home and is receiving counseling, learning that the only mother she has known is a fraud, said Andy Williams, a spokesman for the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services. Under the custody arrangement, Cuevas and Vera, who are no longer a couple, will share legal custody but the girl, who will keep using the name Aliyah, will live with her mother. The Mercer County prosecutor's office in New Jersey said on Tuesday that Ms. Correa was convicted of arson in June 1998 in an unrelated case. Farson, 29, said he grabbed a garden hose, crawled across porch roofs, smashed the closed bedroom windows and tried to put out the fire. We collect and tell stories of people from all around the world. Farson said the neighbor told him that Cuevas' two older children and the baby were in the care of their grandmother while Cuevas was out looking for work and Vera was elsewhere. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Kidnapping Victims Found Alive | Newsflavor Boo-Ya! Tagged: delimar vera cuevas Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts. In court, Carolyn Correa (search) publicly accused birth father Pedro Vera of helping her commit the crime, a charge he denied after the hearing. Andre Moore, who said he was dating Ms. Correa at that time, said she appeared to be pregnant and later told him that the infant was his daughter. The baby's room is on fire!" "She has a look that's more like us than her. world series game 3 score 20,000 people may have been exposed to measles at Asbury University revival 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. Correa was a distant cousin of Luz's husband and had visited the Cuevas home the day before the fire. When she knew who she was and where she was? The test would prove her instinct was right. Six years ago, Luzaida Cuevas believed her infant daughter Delimar had died in a Philadelphia apartment fire. I would be really surprised if this doesn't take some toll on her.". "The baby's room is on fire! https://www.kidspot.com.au/news/mum-discovers-baby-alive-six-years-after-being-told-she-died-in-a-fire/news-story/67d92e4e5368fdc7d7c850965cb34c3d, https://www.foxnews.com/story/woman-took-baby-from-burning-house-gets-30-years, https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2004/03/21/murky-details-cloud-girl-s-return/, https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/03/us/girl-found-and-woman-held-after-a-ruse-lasting-years.html, Excerpt from book: https://books.google.se/books?id=J0qeAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA46&lpg=PA46&dq=Carolyn+Correa&source=bl&ots=weCubRE7qg&sig=ACfU3U07kvkNsf3L6f_RZP0corMhn3vMbw&hl=sv&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj20qiG3OP4AhXBOXoKHRxFDDcQ6AF6BAgaEAM#v=onepage&q=Carolyn%20Correa&f=false, Scan this QR code to download the app now, https://books.google.se/books?id=J0qeAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA46&lpg=PA46&dq=Carolyn+Correa&source=bl&ots=weCubRE7qg&sig=ACfU3U07kvkNsf3L6f_RZP0corMhn3vMbw&hl=sv&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj20qiG3OP4AhXBOXoKHRxFDDcQ6AF6BAgaEAM#v=onepage&q=Carolyn%20Correa&f=false. 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