Dymphna
Loyalty, Friendship, Love
PHILADELPHIA - An infant believed to have died in a 1997 fire actually was kidnapped and raised by a woman who set the blaze to cover her path, authorities said. Now, the child's mother - who recognized the girl at a party by a dimple - is eagerly awaiting a reunion.
Police issued an arrest warrant for Carolyn Correa, 41, of Willingboro, N.J., on charges of arson, kidnapping and conspiracy. She remained at large Tuesday, authorities said.
"This child, now 6 years old, who has been raised by Carolyn Correa as her own, is not her own," police Capt. John Darby said.
The biological mother, Luz Cuevas of Philadelphia, saw the girl at a birthday party in January and recognized her by a dimple on her face.
At the party, she told the girl she had gum in her hair and pulled out five strands for DNA testing, Cuevas told The Associated Press on Tuesday. She said she folded them in a napkin and placed them in a plastic bag, which she locked in a safe at home, and contacted authorities.
"Because of TV, I knew they needed hair for the DNA (tests)," Cuevas said.
The girl, Delimar Vera, was placed in state custody in New Jersey. It was not clear when she would be reunited with her mother.
"When I see her, I saw that she was my daughter," Cuevas said. "I want to hug her. I want to run with her."
Delimar was thought to have perished in the Dec. 15, 1997, blaze in her family's home. A body was never found; authorities believed the infant had been consumed by the fast-moving fire.
State Rep. Angel Cruz, who helped the mother contact police after she spotted the little girl, credited "motherly instinct" for connecting mother and child.
Ever since the blaze, Cuevas held on to the belief that her child was somehow alive - partly because it didn't make sense that a window of the infant's second-floor room was found to have been open after the blaze, even though it was the middle of December, Cruz said.
After recognizing the girl, "I said to my sister, `Look, she's my daughter,'" Cuevas told WPHL-TV.
It was unclear what brought the child and her mother to the same party, but Correa apparently knew the family through the infant's father, Pedro Vera.
Vera told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Correa stopped in several times after the baby was born, saying she was pregnant. The visits waned after the fire.
Cruz said the girl would be reunited with her mother after authorities in New Jersey break the news to her about what happened.
"I mean, she's 6 years old," he told "Good Morning America." "It will be devastating to this child."
Fire officials at the time blamed the one-alarm blaze on a home-rigged extension cord connected to a space heater.
Police issued an arrest warrant for Carolyn Correa, 41, of Willingboro, N.J., on charges of arson, kidnapping and conspiracy. She remained at large Tuesday, authorities said.
"This child, now 6 years old, who has been raised by Carolyn Correa as her own, is not her own," police Capt. John Darby said.
The biological mother, Luz Cuevas of Philadelphia, saw the girl at a birthday party in January and recognized her by a dimple on her face.
At the party, she told the girl she had gum in her hair and pulled out five strands for DNA testing, Cuevas told The Associated Press on Tuesday. She said she folded them in a napkin and placed them in a plastic bag, which she locked in a safe at home, and contacted authorities.
"Because of TV, I knew they needed hair for the DNA (tests)," Cuevas said.
The girl, Delimar Vera, was placed in state custody in New Jersey. It was not clear when she would be reunited with her mother.
"When I see her, I saw that she was my daughter," Cuevas said. "I want to hug her. I want to run with her."
Delimar was thought to have perished in the Dec. 15, 1997, blaze in her family's home. A body was never found; authorities believed the infant had been consumed by the fast-moving fire.
State Rep. Angel Cruz, who helped the mother contact police after she spotted the little girl, credited "motherly instinct" for connecting mother and child.
Ever since the blaze, Cuevas held on to the belief that her child was somehow alive - partly because it didn't make sense that a window of the infant's second-floor room was found to have been open after the blaze, even though it was the middle of December, Cruz said.
After recognizing the girl, "I said to my sister, `Look, she's my daughter,'" Cuevas told WPHL-TV.
It was unclear what brought the child and her mother to the same party, but Correa apparently knew the family through the infant's father, Pedro Vera.
Vera told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Correa stopped in several times after the baby was born, saying she was pregnant. The visits waned after the fire.
Cruz said the girl would be reunited with her mother after authorities in New Jersey break the news to her about what happened.
"I mean, she's 6 years old," he told "Good Morning America." "It will be devastating to this child."
Fire officials at the time blamed the one-alarm blaze on a home-rigged extension cord connected to a space heater.
