PHILADELPHIA, March 5 (UPI) -- A Philadelphia mother whose newborn child was kidnapped six years ago in a staged fire at her home was reunited with her long-lost daughter Friday.
Luz Ada Cuevas was thrilled to hold her 6-year-old daughter, Delimar Vera, KYW-AM, Philadelphia, reported.
"She called me mommy and she accepts me," Cuevas said.
Cuevas said she intends to improve her English so she can communicate better with the daughter that firefighters said she had lost in a house fire.
On Tuesday, Carolyn Correa, 41, a cousin of Cuevas who lives in New Jersey, surrendered in the 1997 kidnapping and abduction of Delimar, who was 10 days old when her Philadelphia house burned.
At the time of the fire, authorities told the birth mother her child died in the blaze, but no body was found.
The truth began emerging in January when Cuevas happened to be at a birthday party in Philadelphia and recognized her little girl. Secretly, she got a sample of Delimar's hair and DNA tests confirmed her suspicion.
Cuevas and her former husband, Pedro Vera, expressed the hope they would be able to share custody of Delimar.
