Delimar Vera, who was kidnapped as a baby during a staged house fire in Philadelphia, USA, was reunited with her birth mother, Luz Cuevas. After six years of thinking Vera had died, Cuevas recognized her daughter at a birthday party. Two decades after being reclaimed by her birth parents, Vera reflected on her tumultuous past in a new documentary, Back From The Dead: Who Kidnapped Me?
Highlights
- Delimar Vera was kidnapped as a baby during a staged fire and found 6 years later.
- Luz Cuevas recognized her daughter at a party and confirmed her identity via DNA.
- Vera's kidnapper was arrested for arson and kidnapping in 2004.
- Vera overcame trauma and now shares a close bond with her biological mom.
In 2004, Cuevas recognized a six-year-old girl named “Aaliyah Correa” as her own daughter, Delimar Vera, whom she believed had died in a house fire six years earlier.
Noticing a resemblance, Cuevas discreetly cut a strand of the girl's hair for DNA testing, which soon confirmed her suspicions: Aaliyah Correa was indeed her lost child, Delimar Vera.
Cuevas suspected that Carolyn Correa, Vera’s adoptive mother, had kidnapped Vera after a fire in December 1997 destroyed her home in Philadelphia.
Delimar Vera, who was kidnapped as a baby during a staged house fire in Philadelphia, USA, was reunited with her birth mother, Luz Cuevas
Image credits: True Crime Ireland
At just ten days old, Vera was nowhere to be found and was presumed dead for six years, Variety reported on Tuesday (November 5).
But a chance encounter between Cuevas and Vera at a birthday party sparked suspicions, leading to an investigation that ultimately confirmed her identity and resulted in Correa’s arrest.
Now, two decades on from the moment she was reunited with her birth parents—Cuevas and Pedro Vera—Vera, now 26, is looking back on her upbringing for the first time as part of a new documentary, Back From The Dead: Who Kidnapped Me?, Tyla reported on Wednesday (November 6).
Vera recalled: "When I got to the party, we were all hanging out downstairs, and that's when I saw my mother for the first time."
Image credits: True Crime Ireland
"I just thought, 'Oh, my god, look at this beautiful woman.' I just gravitated towards her, I don't know why. I was just so intrigued.
"She kept smiling at me, and we kept looking at each other. Of course, I didn't know in that moment that we had any relation to one another.
"But then we went upstairs to color in with the rest of the kids at the party, and when I was walking out of the room, she came up from behind me and told me I had gum in my hair.
“That's when she pulled some hair out of my head."
After six years of thinking Vera had died, Cuevas recognized her daughter at a birthday party
Image credits: True Crime Ireland
Vera reportedly said that Correa—who hadn't been 'much of a mother' to her growing up and had even seen the child subjected to abuse at the hands of her sporadic love interests—had rushed her out of the party as a child, having realized that Cuevas had noticed a similarity, as per Tyla.
It was Vera’s “uniquely deep dimples” that gave it away. As Vera recounted: “It was the family resemblance.
“My oldest brother, I look like the woman version of him, and he looks like the male version of myself.”
She continued: "She thought, 'Oh, that must be my daughter.' I remember being home with Carolyn and her telling me, 'There's this bad woman that wants to take you away from us,' and I told her, 'I'm not going to [let her] do that.'"
Image credits: True Crime Ireland
Cuevas had reportedly arranged for her birth daughter's hair to be tested. After being called into the forensic officer's office, Correa—who already knew the Vera family because her sister had married into it—tried her best to hide Vera's real identity.
Vera told Tyla: "A couple of times, we went into the bathroom together and that's [when] she began putting a mysterious spray into my mouth.
"I later found out this was her own saliva. She would tell me, 'Don't swallow, don't swallow.' But I told the officers what she'd done."
Two decades after being reclaimed by her birth parents, Vera reflected on her past in a new documentary, Back From The Dead: Who Kidnapped Me?
Image credits: Jeff Fusco/Getty Images
Moreover, the DNA test confirmed Cuevas’s hunch that the little girl introduced to her at a birthday party as Aaliyah Hernandez was the daughter she thought had died in a fire when she was only ten days old, CBS News reported in 2004.
In 2004, Correa, who had a criminal record for arson, was arrested and later convicted of kidnapping, arson, and attempted murder.
The authorities said at the time that Correa was at Cuevas’s house when a fire broke out, The New York Times reported in 2004.
Moreover, the Mercer County prosecutor’s office in New Jersey said Correa had already been convicted of arson in June 1998 in an unrelated case.
Image credits: True Crime Ireland
In that case, she had pleaded guilty to setting a fire in 1996 at a medical office in Hamilton Township where she worked as a file clerk.
She was reportedly sentenced to 9–30 years in prison, with parole eligibility starting in 2014.
Meanwhile, Vera, who had been living with the Correa family and believed her foster siblings were her own, was temporarily placed in foster care before being reunited with her biological parents, Cuevas and Pedro Vera.
With the support of her siblings, Vera adapted well to her family’s Puerto Rican background, ultimately growing up to be a happy, healthy adult.
Cuevas suspected that Carolyn Correa, Vera’s adoptive mother, had kidnapped her after a fire in December 1997 destroyed Vera’s home in Philadelphia
Image credits: True Crime Ireland
She graduated from college, married a man called Isaiah Robinson, and became a stepmother to his 11-year-old son.
Vera admitted: "My experience has definitely made me more protective of my family. And I have post-traumatic stress disorder, so meeting my husband, I had to unlearn a lot of things that were actually trauma responses.
"Navigating that and maintaining a healthy relationship was a learning curve because you can get triggered. But he's been with me through it all."
Vera now shares a close bond with her biological mother, speaking with her for at least an hour every week.
Image credits: True Crime Ireland
"As I've gotten older, I've realized that we have a lot more in common than I would have thought," she said.
She added: "We have the same laugh, the same mannerisms. We have a beautiful relationship."
Vera and her husband also reportedly visit her father in Puerto Rico whenever possible. Describing their relationship as friendly and relaxed, she said: "I always felt like my dad was more of a sibling.
"Not in a bad way - he was just more laid back, so, we speak every now and again. He'll call me every other week or so."
At just ten days old, Vera was nowhere to be found and was presumed dead for six years
Image credits: David Livingston/Getty Images
Despite this traumatic experience, Vera has visited her captor once since Correa's imprisonment.
During that visit, Vera asked if Correa had an accomplice in her abduction, and she admitted: "There's somebody still walking around who hasn't paid any consequences for what they did.
"I know that she didn't take me out of that window by herself - there's definitely somebody out there that assisted her.
"But, whoever it was, Carolyn is protecting that person with her life."
Image credits: delimar_vera
She also confronted Correa about her motive for the kidnapping, questioning why she took her despite already having three children.
Correa reportedly gave no answer, leading Vera to describe her as a "sociopathic liar."
She concluded: "You don't have to be a victim for the rest of your life - there is always another side."
Back From The Dead: Who Kidnapped Me? is available to watch as a box set on U.
"She looked just like her mom," a reader commented
