Newborn thought killed in 1997 fire was really kidnapped

By JOANN LOVIGLIO Associated Press Writer

March 1, 2004, 11:23 PM EST

PHILADELPHIA -- A 10-day-old girl thought to have died in a 1997 fire was actually kidnapped by a woman who set the blaze to cover her tracks, police said Monday. The baby's biological mother contacted authorities after seeing the now 6-year-old at a birthday party and recognizing the child as her own.

Delimar Vera was thought to have perished in the Dec. 15, 1997, blaze in her family's home in the Feltonville neighborhood of North Philadelphia. Although a body was never found, authorities believed the infant had been consumed by the heat and flames of the fast-moving blaze.

In January, the child's mother spotted a little girl at a birthday party and was certain the 6-year-old was her daughter, police Capt. John Darby said. A subsequent investigation prompted DNA tests that confirmed the mother's suspicion, police said.

Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of Carolyn Correa, 41, of Willingboro, N.J., on charges of arson, kidnapping and conspiracy. She remained at large Monday and a telephone listing in her name could not be found.

"This child, now 6 years old, who has been raised by Carolyn Correa as her own, is not her own," Darby said.

The girl's mother, Luz Cuevas, told WPHL-TV that she recognized the child from a dimple on her face.

"I said to my sister, `Look, she's my daughter,"' Cuevas said.

It was unclear what brought the child and her biological mother to the same party. State Rep. Angel Cruz, who helped the woman contact and work with police after she spotted the little girl, credited "motherly instinct" for connecting mother and child.

Ever since the blaze, the mother held on to the belief that her child was somehow alive _ partly because it didn't make sense that a window of the infant's room was found after the blaze to have been open, even though it was the middle of December, Cruz said.

After being told that DNA tests confirmed her suspicions, the child's mother "didn't know whether to cry, to yell or to scream," Officer Manuel Gonzales said. "She just stood in shock. She was just in total shock."

Delimar was placed in the custody of New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services. It was not immediately clear when she would be reunited with her biological mother.

Fire officials at the time blamed the one-alarm blaze on a home-rigged extension cord connected to a space heater. The fast-moving fire was brought under control within 10 minutes, but the second-floor bedroom, where the baby had been sleeping, was gutted by flames.

Show all stories by   Author:  15228 ( Click here )