Philadelphia police say an infant who was thought to have died in a 1997 house fire is really alive -- and that the fire was set as a ruse to kidnap the girl.
The girl, Delimar Vera, was 10 days old when a fire destroyed a house in the Feltonville neighborhood on Dec. 15, 1997. Philadelphia authorities believed at the time that no body was found because it was consumed by the intense heat.
But not everything added up, according to state Rep. Angel Cruz. Cruz said a woman had come to the house on the day of the fire.
In January, the girl's mother, Luz Aida Cuevas, spotted the now-six-year-old girl at a birthday party thrown by Vera's side of the family.
"I looked at her. She walked in front of me. She looked at me. I looked at her. I said to my sister, 'That is my daughter. She got my daughter.' My sister said, 'You have to take it easy. You need proof. We have to find proof,'" Cuevas said.
"She bumps into the lady who had come to her house the day of the fire, and she sees the lady with a child, and all of a sudden, her motherly instincts say, 'that's my child.' She left there saying, 'that's my child, that's my baby," Cruz said.
The investigation was reopened and the DNA test results announced Monday confirmed that the girl Cuevas saw is her missing daughter.
Police are looking for Carolyn Correa (pictured, right), 41, and plan to charge her with 15 counts including kidnapping, aggravated assault and arson.
Police said Correa allegedly took the baby six years ago and is now on the run. She was last seen living in Willingboro, N.J., driving a burgundy 2003 Chevrolet with a New Jersey license plate of NTL71H.
Birth Mother Talks To NBC 10 News
NBC 10 News talked exclusively to Cuevas about her relief at finally finding her daughter.
"I screamed (when I was told the test results). I felt so happy. I don't know what to say. Cry? You know, because I was in shock when they say, 'It's your daughter,'" Cuevas said happily.
Cuevas said she knew she had just met her daughter because she recognized the moles on the girl's cheek. She also said the girl looked like her sons, who never gave up hope they would be reunited with their sister.
"Every Christmas, my sons say, 'Mommy, we have to find (her).' I said, 'Don't worry, we'll find her.' I knew she was alive," Cuevas said.
Cuevas is thrilled, but she also has bitter questions for the woman accused of kidnapping her child.
"Why'd she do that to me? Kidnapping my daughter? You know? She do a fire to my house to take my daughter," Cuevas said. Correa's husband told NBC 10 News that he is devastated to find out the girl he thought was his daughter belonged to someone else.
Girl's Birth Father Stunned
Pedro Vera was stunned and excited that his daughter was alive and revisited the address where he last saw her. He told NBC 10 News that he couldn't wait to see his daughter.
Vera went to the same birthday party where Cuevas first laid eyes on Delimar. Correa is his cousin and introduced the girl to him as her own daughter, named Aaliyah.
"I got the feeling that was my daughter because she looked like me," Vera said. Vera also had the feeling that the girl looked just like his son.
"A lot of years, I think she's dead. And now, when I looked at her and I said, 'Oh my God, that's my daughter. She's not dead,'" Vera told NBC 10.
More News From nbc10.com:
Lamano Gets Two Years Probation For Animal Cruelty
Bakery Charged With Evading E-ZPass 1,132 Times
Pickup Truck Crashes Into South Jersey Home
