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Topics: World News
Hannah Smith
A couple whose baby was abducted from hospital as a newborn have been reunited with their son 16 years later.
Rosalia Lopez and Yasir Macias, from Guadalajara, Mexico, last saw their son, Salvador, in December 2005 when he was taken away by a woman who claimed to be a nurse at the hospital where Lopez had just given birth.
The woman told the couple that visiting hours had finished, and that she was taking their son for feeding. When she didn't return with the baby, they immediately reported him missing but it was too late, and the trail went cold. They thought all hope was lost, and that they'd never see him again — or so they thought.
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After almost two decades of wondering what happened to their son, Lopez and Macias got the happy ending to their family tragedy they had dreamed of, when investigators successfully identified their missing son following years of attempts to track down the now-16-year-old boy.
According to The Mirror, in September last year, the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences used a picture of Salvador as a baby to carry out facial analysis, allowing them to generate an image of what he might look like today.
Months later, investigators working on the case received a tip-off about a teenager who fit the description and profile of Salvador. They visited him at his home in El Salto, a suburb of Guadalajara, where he lived with another family, and after carrying out DNA testing discovered that he was a 99.99% genetic match to Lopez and Macias.
'The young man was located in good health conditions, he was guarded by personnel from this unit and later genetic comparisons were carried out to confirm that it is the same abducted person,' the Jalisco State Prosecutors Office said in a statement, per El Comercio.
In a tweet confirming the discovery, Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro described the reunion as 'a miracle', saying, 'A few moments ago [Salvador and his] family officially received the news they had been waiting for almost 17 years. They will be together again.'
The case has attracted headlines throughout Mexico, with Salvador known in the media by the nickname 'Chavita', as well-wishers followed the efforts to identify the missing baby.
In a statement, the State Prosecutors Office confirmed news of the successful identification, and confirmed that efforts were ongoing to investigate the circumstances surrounding his disappearance. No one has ever been arrested in connection with the boy's abduction, and no arrests have been made in the wake of his discovery.
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