A toddler who was kidnapped by her non-custodial parent in 1999 has been found, according to forensic genetic genealogy company Othram.
Andrea Michelle Reyes was 23 months old when she was allegedly abducted from New Haven, Connecticut by her mother, Rosa Tenorio, who did not have custody of the child. An investigation was launched, and a felony warrant for custodial interference was issued, Othram said in a news release.
Othram/NAMUS/New Haven Police Department
Officials believed that Tenorio had taken Reyes to Puebla, Mexico, according to Othram and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, but the pair were never located. Another felony warrant was released in 2009, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.
Investigations into her disappearance continued. Authorities released multiple age progression photos showing how she might have looked as the years passed. Reyes’ father “searched tirelessly” over the years, Othram said, but there were no developments in the case. Othram said that “individuals” even went to Mexico to Reyes’ reported location, but she could not be found.
In 2023, the New Haven Police Department began to re-investigate the case, Othram said. That led to a woman claiming to be Reyes making contact with the man she believed to be her father. The New Haven Police Department and Othram worked together to confirm the two were related.
Othram/NAMUS/New Haven Police Department
The woman provided a DNA sample, which was compared to Reyes’ father’s DNA. The comparison confirmed “that the woman who reached out is, in fact, the nearly two-year-old girl kidnapped in October of 1999,” Othram said.
Reyes, now 27, lives in Mexico. It’s not clear what her relationship with her mother is. Othram did not say if she had reunited with her father since the positive identification was made. CBS News has reached out to the New Haven Police Department for more information.
Othram said this is the seventh case in Connecticut where officials have used the company’s technology to identify an individual. The case was investigated as part of Othram’s Project 525 initiative. The initiative has partnered Ohtram and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System in an effort to resolve the 525 juvenile cases published on the database.
