Juana Ramirez was just three when she was allegedly snatched from her mother Lorena in broad daylight in a Mexico City park, given a new identity by her captors, before being reunited 27 years later
One little girl was abducted in broad daylight aged just three and was brought up believing her kidnappers were her real family before one photo changed everything.
Juana went missing in the middle of the day in a park in Mexico City. Her mother Lorena Ramirez never gave up hope of finding her little girl again for 24 years.
Lorena had taken her three children to Bosque de Chapultepec, one of the largest parks in the city, with her husband and sister-in-law when Juana was snatched from them.
The family were saying their goodbyes when little Juana suddenly disappeared. Juana, who renamed herself as Rocio, has since 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, according to Vox.
At the time of her abduction, Juana was given a new identity and age by her kidnappers, who told her her birthday was the day she was taken, October 1, 1995, instead of June 16 three years earlier.
Years after Juana’s abduction, the neighbours of her captors told the then-young girl the people she lived with were not her biological parents.
Following a confrontation, her “mother” told Juana she had adopted her after seeing her wandering alone in Mexico City’s Bosque de Chapultepec park.
Juana said the people who took her from her mother treated her “badly”, leading her to flee the house at just 17 to live with her now husband.
Rocio’s husband later persuaded her to research missing girls in the area in an attempt to find her real family.
She then saw a photo that chilled her to the bone. Whilst on a missing persons register she came across a photo of a girl who looked remarkably similar to her younger self.
“There was such a strong physical resemblance I said to myself ‘I’m that girl’,” she stated. However, without any contact information, she said “It took me another eight years before deciding to look for my family.”
Taking her fate into her own hands, finally one day Rocio decided to post an image on herself online to see if she could find her real family. Lorena’s daughter, Maria Jose, one of her other daughters, spotted a picture on social media of their long-lost Juana.
The photo had been posted by the then 30-year-old Rocio. When she did post the photo of her younger self, one of Lorena’s daughters, Maria Jose, saw the picture on social media and made contact.
After chatting online, the family arranged for Rocio to reunite with her long-lost mother.
Following 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.”
Overcome with emotion, she added: “Just imagine, I suffered terribly for 27 years.” Lorena later told local press: “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’.”
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