Great for the mother, she knew this was her child and found a way to prove it. Now why does she have to wait for a court to let her claim her own child? How many ways does she need to get screwed? First the fire marshall says the infant was totally consumed in a house fire? Come on, even crematoriums leave some bones, this amateur fire was not nearly as hot. They blew her off because she was poor, and now that she’s found her child, why on earth does she need to wait any more?
The kid has to digest the idea that her mother wasn’t really her mother. The kid and the natural mom will have to attend counseling to ease into their new roles and new families. It would be harmful to the kid and the family if this isn’t handled very carefully.
There was a movie about this a few years ago. The kid didn’t want to leave the guy that he knew as his father (the mother/kidnapper died and the dad didn’t know anything about it). It was very emotional for everyone.
That said, I hope this woman sues the bejeezus out of the people that handled the fire and autopsy and all that shit. I hope they’re all relieved of their jobs.
Amen. True, the child will need counseling and the city should pay for all psychological needs- if they hadn’t dropped the ball after the fire, they could have reunited this family much earlier. But as far as who has a right to raise the child, I don’t see a question for the court.
This story is so weird. First of all, how could they not find any bones, or any evidence the baby died? I remember from threads on this board that cremation is done at very high temps, much higher than the average house fire, and there are still many bone fragments remaining. And how in the world did that woman recognize a six-year old as her daughter, whom she had last seen at ten days old? And what were they doing at the same birthday party? It’s like something out of a bad movie.
We’re not talking about an inanimate object or a head of livestock here. There’s more to consider than “property rights.” As far as the child is concerned, her mother is the one she knows as her mother. Biology doesn’t mean squat to the kid. Essentially, the scenario is one of a child being forcibly removed from her mommy and handed over to a stranger. There is a real possibility of irreparable harm being done. Proceeding with caution is absolutely waranted.
The people the child knew as parents are accused as felons. Biology might not mean squat to the kid, but the issue is does the court have any means to deny custody of a kidnapped child to his/her parents? If the court does anything but return the child to its parents, then it has legalized kidnapping. The logic is similar to the Baby Jessica case- parental rights may only be denied in extraordinary circumstances.
The mother recognized a dimple on the kid that was in the same place as her daughter’s dimple. Plus, the child looks exactly like her and her other children. I heard she told the girl that she had gum or something in her hair and grabbed a couple strands so she could do a DNA test. Quick thinking!
The authorities are damn near criminal in their neglect and sloppy science in this case. They all ought to do some time.
The mother might have recognized the child because she (the child) looked exactly like someone else–the mother herself as a child, another close family member. When my husband’s old family friends meet my son they are startled at how the child they once knew (my husband) seems to be standing in front of them.
They were at the same birthday party because the kidnapper was a relative (by marriage) of the father; the article states they were raised as cousins.
This situation is so awful and sad. What is most disturbing is that it seems that other people in the family suspected who the child was. Why else would the father’s sister (the hostess of the party) have said “Isn’t Carol’s daughter beautiful? She’s not your baby” to the mother?
I didn’t hear THAT before. How fucking weird. Heads are gonna roll on this one.
She has to wait because at this point her child has been pronounced dead and the 6 year old is presumed to be the other woman’s child until evidence to the contrary is presented in court. If I were to go to the police and claim that your child was actually mine, they couldn’t give me the child without a judicial determination that I was the actual father any more than they could put you in prison without a judicial determination that you had committed kidnapping. You are the presumed parent of the child, and the police can’t terminate your rights and make me the father without a court’s say so. The alleged kidnapper has at least created the legal appearance that she is the parent, and in the eyes of the law, Cuevas’ child died in a fire 6 years ago until a court issues an order to the contrary. I would imagine that the matter will be expedited as pronto as possible.
Makes sense to me- surely this will be expedited. If it is a legal formality of revoking her death certificate and positively identifying the child via her birth footprint or whatever, fine. If on the other hand, the judge is actually going to consider NOT awarding custody to the parents after this identity is certified, then that would be preposterous.
I would think you’re right. Seeing as how the DNA was analyzed by the police, returning the child to the biological mother seems a no-brainer. It’s got to be hard on the kid, though; the only mother she’s ever known was the crazy arsonist/kidnapper who will almost certainly go to prison. The court will probably order some counseling for the kid.
I just read this amazing story this morning and the first thing I thought fo was the absence of remains after the fire. It seemed very unusual especially since the whole house was not consumed in flames. Someone should hang for that shoddy investigation. I wouldn’t think the wait will be very long though but I wonder how the child will handle the situation.
I love this heart-warming story.
It just goes to show: Women’s Intuition is a powerful & indescribable phenomenon.
Did I miss something? The article said they removed what was thought to be the baby’s remains from the fire, but testing determined that they were not human remains. They then concluded that the body had been consumed in the fire. OK but what had they tested?
Fuck, people are SICK! What the hell is WRONG with people?
Evidently, not a fucking thing. This goes beyond sloppy. They just plain didn’t give a shit.
Maybe the reason that officials thought the baby was consumed in the fire was because she was only 10 days old. IANAPathologist but I would think that the bones of such a young child would be fragile compared to those of a 30 yr old adult. Not to be gruesome but in a fire, a toothpick would be ash long before a log would be.
living in philly gives a few details to this, it is on the news constantly.
a. the mother was amazing, snagging hair and taking it to her councilman to get help testing it. amazing control and quick thinking.
b. it took 2 weeks for the results to come in. the alleged kidnapping mom was said to cooperate with the testing.
c. once the results came in, child welfare took over and the child was taken to a foster home while arrangements for counciling and a reunion with her mother could be made.
d. the daughter is extremely upset and fragile emotionally as they try to explain to her what is going on.
e. the mother lives in philly and the child lives in nj. there are a lot of delicate operations going on with how schools, homes, family, etc will be handled. right now they are going slow to try to make it as easy on possible on the daughter.
f. the biological father has also thrown in his hat and gotten a lawyer to try for custody as well. the mother is very upset about this and seems to have very interesting things to say about him.
g. the kidnapping mother is in jail on quite a few charges and 1 million dollar bail. her attorney has said that tkm and the mother were pregnant around the same time and that tkm stated she had given birth at home. her child’s whereabouts are unknown and from what i gathered during the news tonight tkm may have had something go wrong with the birth and took the daughter as a sub in post partem something or other,according to her lawyer
h. since a body was never found in the room after the fire no death cert. was issued for the daughter. why it was never investigated as a missing person is now being investigated and believe me, the words civil law suit are being flung far and wide.
i. i believe you are refering to kimberly mays, kalhoun. she was 10 when it was discovered she and another girl were switched at the hospital. the other girl died due to heart problems and that is when the family found out she could not have been thier bio daughter. they investigated and found kimberly mays. and yes, it really messed up her life quite a bit. she is around 24 now.