Son Missing For 20 Years Returns From Mexico to Reunite With Mother

San Diego, CA — Among the sea of people who cross the international border from Tijuana, Mexico into San Diego every single day, one very special and long-awaited border crossing took place Thursday.

In February, investigators with the San Bernardino County District Attorney's received a tip that Steve Hernandez, a 22-year-old U.S. citizen, was possibly living about 100 miles south of Mexico City in Puebla, Mexico. Senior District Attorney Investigator Karen Cragg of the Child Abduction Unit wondered if it could be the same Steve Hernandez who was last seen by his mother, Maria Mancia, 20 years ago when he was 18 months old.

"We weren’t positive we located the right person," Cragg said. "So we used a ruse and told Steve we were conducting an investigation related to the disappearance of his father. During the conversation, we found several similarities in his history that matched that of our missing boy."

Cragg and Investigative Technician Michelle Faxon worked to get a DNA sample from Hernandez in order to find out if he was in fact the missing boy. After extensive coordination and planning they persuaded the Department of Justice and Mexican officials to assist in the collection of a DNA sample from Hernandez. That swab, along with Mancia's swab, was sent to the lab for analysis.

On May 31, Cragg was advised that "Steve in Mexico" was in fact the missing child from 1995.

"We contacted the mother and she was overcome with emotion and very thankful," Cragg said. "She had never given up after all these years, but had accepted the fact that she may never know her son. Maria never gave up, and neither did our office. Our committed teamwork paid off and we finally found Steve. To be able to return him to his country and his mother is an indescribable honor."

According to Cragg, Hernandez was abducted by his father, Valentin Hernandez, from their Rancho Cucamonga residence in 1995. Since that time, Mancia, 42, who eventually relocated to Rialto, searched for her son.

"The couple was having problems in their relationship at the time of Steve’s abduction," Cragg said. "The mother went to work one day, only to return home to an empty residence with the father and child gone."

Valentin, now 54 years old, had taken all the pictures of Steve, along with any other paperwork identifying the child — even an ultrasound, according to the San Bernardino DA's Office.

Mancia had to write her aunt in El Salvador requesting a photograph she had sent her of her son, according to Cragg.

"That became the only photograph she had of Steve for the last 21 years," Cragg said.

Over the years, the San Bernardino DA's Child Abduction Unit tracked several leads in different parts of the U.S. in an effort to locate the boy.

Information surfaced that the father and alleged abductor was no longer alive — although his death remains unverified. As a result, Valentin Hernandez currently has a $750,000 warrant in the system for kidnapping and child abduction.

Thursday morning, after clearing the immigration checkpoint between Tijuana and San Diego, Steve was accompanied by district attorney investigators to the San Bernardino County DA's Office to see his mother for the first time since 1995.

They hugged. She wept. He wiped the tears from his mother's eyes. 

(Photos courtesy of San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office)