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MIRACLE REUNION
Girl, 3, snatched from park when mum’s back was turned is FOUND 27 years later after an incredible clue
A MOTHER has been reunited with her daughter 27 years after she was allegedly snatched from a park as a toddler.
Lorena Ramirez last saw her daughter, Juana, when she was three, before the tot was kidnapped in broad daylight.
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The pair have now been reunited after an incredible clue helped Juana to know the kidnappers were not her real family.
Now a 30-year-old married mum called Rocio - Juana was allegedly taken in by another couple.
The tot was given a new identity and age by her kidnappers, as they told her her birthday was the day she was taken, October 1 1995, instead of June 16 three years earlier.
She said the people who snatched her from her mother treated her "badly" and she fled the house at just 17 to live with her now husband.
Lorena, overwhelmed by emotion, said: “Just imagine, I suffered terribly for 27 years.”
The family were enjoying a day in the park when her tot suddenly vanished.
Lorena had taken her three children to Bosque de Chapultepec, one of the largest parks in Mexico City, with her husband and sister-in-law.
The emotional mum said: “I don't know if it was a mother's hunch, but I knew in that moment that my daughter had just been taken from me.”
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After their reunion, Lorena said: “I lost a three-year-old child and found a 30-year-old woman.
“I did not experience those stages of her life, it is a part of her that was stolen from me.”
The family were saying goodbye when Juana, now Rocio, suddenly went missing.
Rocio said she felt someone grab her by the waist as her parents' momentarily let go of her hand, and later woke up in a stranger's house.
She was surrounded by three young boys who she was told were now her new brothers.
Despite the devastated parents' efforts to comb the park, Juana was gone.
Cops later told the distraught family they had to wait 72 hours before the authorities could take any action.
The alleged kidnappers were a family from Toluca, roughly 35 miles southwest of Mexico City.
Years after her kidnapping, neighbours of the family told Juana they were not her real parents.
Following a confrontation, her 'mother' said she had seen her wandering around in the Bosque de Chapultepec park alone.
It was Rocio's husband who later convinced her to do some research online into missing girls in the area.
She stumbled across a photo of a girl who bore a striking resemblance to her younger self.
“There was such a strong physical resemblance I said to myself ‘I’m that girl’.”
But without any contact information, she said “It took me another eight years before deciding to look for my family.”
Rocio's mother opened up about the years after her daughter's kidnapping: “The years began to pass and I had two other daughters.
“But every time Juana's birthday came around, I prayed to God for her to be okay and to give me the chance to see her again.”
One of Lorena's daughter's, Maria Jose, saw a picture on social media years later of little Juana - Rocio had posted it online in a bid to find her real family.
After speaking online, the family arranged for Rocio to reunite with her long-lost mother.
Following the reunion, Lorena told local media: “I couldn’t believe it. When I opened the door, I stopped and she walked in. That hug after 27 years...
“She saw me and said ‘you are my mother’. I replied ‘yes, and you are my daughter’.
"'Thank you for the opportunity to see you again'."
The family used a DNA test to confirm that there is a 99.99% chance the pair are mother and daughter, and they said they now plan to make the most of their time together.
The couple who allegedly kidnapped little Juana were arrested in March, although it is unclear when they will stand trial.
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