The mystery of a missing toddler has taken an unexpected turn after 25 years.
Investigators found some long-awaited answers after the missing woman, now 27 years old, was tracked down and found safe.
Andrea Michelle Reyes was abducted at the age of two on October 5, 1999.
She was in her father’s custody when she vanished from a home in New Haven, Connecticut.
Highlights
- The mystery of a missing 2-year-old child has taken an unexpected turn after 25 years.
- Andrea Michelle Reyes was in the custody of her father when she went missing on October 5, 1999.
- DNA testing helped confirm that a 27-year-old woman is in fact the missing person.
The case of a missing toddler took an unexpected turn 25 years after her abduction
Image credits: DNASolves.com
Investigators believe Andrea was allegedly kidnapped by her mother, who did not have custody of her at the time.
Identified as Rosa Tenorio, the mother is believed to have fled to Mexico with the little girl, spurring a missing investigation case in Connecticut.
“A felony arrest warrant was issued for Rosa, and it was suspected at the time that she had fled with Andrea to Mexico,” the New Haven Police Department said in a statement this week.
For more than two decades, her father had no idea about his daughter’s whereabouts.
He traveled to Mexico several times, but his efforts to find his daughter were in vain.
Image credits: ungvar/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
Years passed by with no developments, until the cold case was reopened by the New Haven Police Department in 2023.
This led to Andrea, herself, coming forward and reaching out to the man she believed was her father.
Investigators verified the authenticity of her claims with help from the DNA testing company, Othram.
Andrea provided her DNA sample, which was compared to that of the father’s, and the comparison supported a father-daughter relationship.
When the case was reopened in 2023, Andrea herself reached out to the man she believed was her father
Image credits: qunica.com/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
This confirmed that the 27-year-old woman who reached out to the man was in fact the very same toddler abducted from his home 25 years back.
The confirmation from the DNA testing led to Andrea and her father “being in contact for the first time in over twenty years,” the police department said.
Andrea was found to have been living in the Mexican city of Puebla for the last 25 years.
DNA testing confirmed a father-daughter relationship between Andrea and the parent
Image credits: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
The arrest warrant for her biological mother remains active.
Social media users were glad to hear the news, saying: “That's wonderful.”
“Glad she was found alive,” one commenter said, while another wrote, “Terrible thing to happen, just thankful she's alive!”
Image credits: pressmaster/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
“The father had custody. I wonder why the mother lost custody. She must have done something,” another wrote. “The courts usually award custody to the mother over the father.”
“These stories are disturbing,” one said.
Karl Jacobson, the chief of the police department, said “this case reflects the hard work of our officers and detectives.
“While cases may have investigative leads exhausted at the time, no cold case is ever truly closed,” the police chief said.
“These stories are disturbing,” a social media user said
Image credits: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
“We remain committed to resolving every cold case and this is a perfect example of that effort,” he added.
According to DNASolves.com, a platform created by Othram to raise awareness and help solve unresolved cases, Andrea’s case is just one of many included in Othram's Project 525 initiative.
Launched on May 23, 2024, Project 525 aims to bring resolution to five hundred twenty-five juvenile cases published in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).
The arrest warrant for Andrea’s biological mother remains active
Andrea’s case is the seventh case in Connecticut, where officials have publicly identified an individual using technology developed by Othram, DNASolves revealed.
Advancements made in DNA testing have led to numerous missing persons being found.
A man in China, kidnapped at the age of 2, managed to locate his biological parents thousands of miles away, with the help of DNA testing.
Image credits: Viacheslav Yakobchuk/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
The Chinese man was abducted from his grandparents’ home as a toddler and sold to a rich family by human traffickers. Decades later, at the age of 37, the man took a DNA test, and the results were put into the missing persons database.
Within 24 hours of finding a match, the man was on a train to reunite with his biological parents, who had reportedly been searching for him for decades.
Despite their reunion, the man reportedly cut ties with his biological family over time due to financial disputes.
Numerous cases of missing persons have been solved in recent years, owing to advancements in DNA testing
Image credits: Othram
In another similar incident, Luis Armando Albino managed to reunite with his biological family after more than 70 years. He was abducted as a child from a California park.
After a woman lured him away using candy, Luis wound up on the East Coast in New York and was raised by another family as if he was their own.
Meanwhile, his biological family at home never forgot him.
Decades later, Luis’ niece took a DNA test in 2020 “just for fun” and found out that she had a 22 percent match with a man all the way on the East Coast.
One thing led to another, and it was found that the matching DNA belonged to her missing uncle.
Netizens had plenty to say after the update on Andrea's case
