What justice could possibly suffice?

[Tiassa]

Score One for Life: One comes home, questions abound

I caught a couple of seconds on one of the news outlets last night, and remember thinking, "Oh, good news." As I read through the story today, I am nearly speechless.

An infant believed to have died in a 1997 fire actually was kidnapped and raised by a woman who set the blaze to cover her path, authorities said. Now, the child’s mother — who recognized the girl at a party — is eagerly awaiting a reunion . . . .

. . . . The girl’s biological mother, Luz Cuevas of Philadelphia, saw the now 6-year-old girl at a birthday party in January and recognized her as her own. A subsequent investigation prompted DNA tests that confirmed the mother’s suspicion, police said.

At the party, she told the girl she had gum in her hair and pulled out five strands for DNA testing, Cuevas said. She then folded the hair in a napkin and placed it in a plastic bag, which she locked in a safe at home, and contacted authorities.

“Because of TV, I knew they needed hair for the DNA (tests),” Cuevas said . . . .

. . . . Ever since the blaze, Cuevas held on to the belief that her child was somehow alive — partly because it didnt make sense that a window of the infant’s second-floor room was found to have been open after the blaze, even though it was the middle of December, Cruz said.

Cuevas told WPHL-TV that she recognized the girl at the birthday party from a dimple on her face.

“I said to my sister, ‘Look, she’s my daughter,”’ Cuevas said. (MSNBC)

A bizarre break and a vigilant mother; one comes home and that is certainly cause to raise a glass.

But what can justice possibly look like in this case?

And what's up with this? An allegedly-dead child, no indicative remains, a window open in the middle of December in New Jersey. Looks cut-and-dried, doesn't it? If it was a US Congressman, professional athlete, pop star, or policeman, and not an Hispanic-American baby who "perished" in the fire, the lack of any indicative remains and the open window would have prompted a huge investigation.

And what might that investigation have found? The child wasn't that far-removed from the family by the abduction.

That's six years, and a most unfortunate trauma to be visited upon this little girl.

Get ready for the movie of the week, I'm sure.

 

[Mystech]

What an incredibly bizarre story. I’d have to agree that there should be some investigation into the investigation that concluded the baby had perished, especially with such obvious oddities in the case.

I’d want to know who this other woman, the kidnaper is, and what was her motive. She’s apparently not a very good kidnapper if the girl’s mother found her at a birthday party. Did she steal the kid and then just move in right next door? Not exactly a criminal mastermind. Even if she had no choice but to keep living near the scene of her crime for whatever reason, don’t you think she could have taken some precautions to ensure that she didn’t bump into the real mother. Maybe something along the line of “Hey is Luz Cuevas coming to that party?” could have saved her from a pretty embarrassing laps.

I don’t know what sort of punishment you could give out for this sort of thing, which I suppose is why I never became a judge (well, among other minor reasons). Making a woman think that her daughter is dead for six years. . . well, I guess the first thing that could be done would to flaunt the fact that you were stupid enough to stay in the neighborhood and went to a party with her.

(by the way, I really dig the whole Courier New, thing. Mind if I copy?)

 

[Silverback]

If there was a fire and no human remains, it boggles my mind that the authorities would just write it off.

Prison for the kidnapper, for certain.

Rolling heads at the fire/police departments to follow.