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DNA Helps Reunite Mother and Kidnapped Son After 21 Years

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Steve Hernandez wipes a tear from his mother's eye after seeing her for the first time in 20 years in San Diego, Calif., on Thursday, June 9, 2016. Steve Hernandez was abducted by his father Valentin Hernandez from their Rancho Cucamonga residence in 1995 when he was 18-months-old. Since that time, 42-year-old Maria Mancia had searched for her son to no avail. The boy, Steve Hernandez, now a man of about 22, has been found in Mexico. On Thursday he was brought to the U.S. to meet his mother.Authorities interviewed the boy and took a DNA swab. The facts of his life, and the DNA, matched. (Christopher Lee/San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office via AP)
Steve Hernandez wipes a tear from his mother's eye after seeing her for the first time in 20 years in San Diego, Calif., on June 9, 2016.Christopher Lee—San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office/AP
By Erik Ortiz / NBC News

In 1995, Maria Mancia came home from work to find her 18-month-old son, Steve, missing.

She soon made an unsettling discovery: The boy’s father, Valentin Hernandez, had kidnapped him and ransacked her California home. Documents and heirlooms, including Steve’s baby pictures and even an ultrasound photo, were gone.

For 21 years, Mancia wondered what happened to her boy: What was he doing? What did he look like? Would he remember me?

On Thursday, she got her answer.

Mancia and her now-22-year-old son were reunited by the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office after a painstaking search for the boy that led them…

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