As flames hovered to the ceiling in her Philadelphia home, Luz Cuevas ran to the bedroom where her 10-day-old daughter, Demilar, slept. She wasn’t in her crib. Suffering from burns on her face and choking from smoke inhalation, Luz ran out of her home with her older children.
Firefighters quickly extinguished the first, which seemed centered around Delimar’s room. They found no traces of the newborn, leaving them to conclude she had di*ed in the fire, although they never found human remains.
Luz refused to accept this answer. She was convinced her child had been ki*dnapped. Police brushed off her concerns, discerning that she was simply grieving for the loss of her child and in denial. Authorities closed the case.
Luz mourned her daughter for six long years. She thought about Delimar every day, wondering what happened to her daughter. Luz never accepted that Delimar had di*ed in the fire that day.
In 2009, Luz attended a friend’s birthday party where she saw a little girl who resembled her other two children. She felt some type of connection to Aaliyah Hernandez, who happened to be the same age as Delimar would be. Luz cut off a string of the girl’s hair under the pretense she had bubble gum stuck in it.
Luz immediately took the hair to the state legislative office and requested DNA testing. Testing proved Aaliyah Hernandez was really Delimar Vera.
Carolyn Cornea, the cousin of Delimar’s father, had taken the baby. Luz met Caroyln the day before the fire. On the day of the fire, Carolyn visited her home claiming she had left her purse. The fire started immediately after Caroyln left her home.
Carolyn had delivered a baby shortly before she k*idnapped Delimar. Sadly, the baby was stillborn. She went on to have three other children and a boyfriend who never doubted Aaliyah was Caroyln’s biological child.
Delimar was reunited with her mother and father, Pedro, and both were granted custody the following year.
It turns out that Pedro had seen Aayliah many times throughout the years, and while he thought that she was his daughter, he never told anyone or pursued the matter.
Carolyn was charged with ki*dnapping, arson, and 13 other charges. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
