Mum of baby kidnapped in house fire took extreme measures to prove local six-year-old was actually her missing daughter
When Pennsylvania local Luz Cuevas' was rescued from a fire at her Philadelphia home back in 1994, police informed her that her 10-day-old baby daughter, Delimar, had tragically perished in the flames.
Despite their assertion, the heartbroken mother simply couldn't believe the horror to be her reality, and maintained hope that the youngster had somehow survived the fire that eviscerated her home.
Fast-forward to six years later, Luz and her sons received an invite to the birthday party of a family friend, where she came face to face with a little girl named Aaliyah - brought to the soiree by her own mother, Carolyn Correa - who looked strangely familiar.
With an undeniable feeling that the girl was her own long-lost daughter, the weeks that followed saw Luz go to extraordinary measures to subtly have Aaliyah's DNA tested and prove that her mother, Carolyn, had stolen her from the blazing fire six years earlier.
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Within a matter of weeks, her suspicion was confirmed - Aaliyah Correa was Delimar Vera, daughter of Luz Cuevas and Pedro Vera.
Now, 20 years on from the moment she was reunited with her parents, a 26-year-old Delimar has spoken exclusively to Tyla about her experience, discussing the bravery of her mother to follow up what she believed to be true.
Her story has also been told for the first time as part of a brand new documentary, Back From The Dead: Who Kidnapped Me? - the boxset of which is currently available to watch on U.
"The resemblance was eye-catching"
"When I got to the party, we were all hanging out downstairs, and that's when I saw my mother for the first time," Delimar began her chilling story, reflecting on the moment Luz set eyes on the child she believed to be dead for the first time in six years.
"I just thought, 'Oh, my god, look at this beautiful woman'. I just gravitated towards her, I don't know why. I was just so intrigued," Delimar continued.
Later on that night, the mystery woman approached Delimar - then known as 'Aaliyah' - offering to remove a piece of bubblegum that had supposedly become tangled in her brunette locks.
"She kept smiling at me, and we kept looking at each other. Of course, I didn't know in that moment that we had any relation to one another."
Delimar says Carolyn - who hadn't been 'much of a mother' to her growing up - had rushed her out of the party as a child, having realised that Luz had noticed a similarity.
"It was the family resemblance. My oldest brother, I look like the woman version of him, and he looks like the male version of myself.
"She thought, 'Oh, that must be my daughter'. The resemblance was eye-catching for her
"I remember being home with Carolyn and her telling me, 'There's this bad woman that wants to take you away from us', and I told her, 'I'm not going to get let do that'. She never gave me any details about who she was, and that she'd claimed to be my mother."
Luz pocketed the hair at the party, and within a matter of weeks, the DNA test finally confirmed what Luz believed to be the truth.
"I didn't understand what was going on"
After being called into the forensic officer's office, however, Carolyn - who had previously been acquainted with the Vera family - attempted to do all she should to disguise Delimar's true identity.
"A couple of times, we went into the bathroom together and that's what she began putting a mysterious spray into my mouth," Delimar told us.
"I later found out this was her own saliva. She would tell me, 'Don't swallow, don't swallow'. But I told the officers what she'd done."
The child was removed from the home she believed she'd been born in, taken away from the mother she'd always known and informed that her three siblings - Carolyn's other children - were not her own.
"I remember crying," she recalls. "I didn't understand what was going on."
Thankfully, however, she was immediately able to form strong bonds with her parents - who split up not long after her kidnapping - now still crediting her mother with having taken it upon herself to bring her daughter home.
Carolyn - who had a criminal history with arson - was arrested in 2004 before pleading no contest to kidnapping, interference of child custody and conspiracy.
She was sentenced a year later to between nine and 30 years in prison.
"We have a lot more in common than I would have thought"
Luz and Pedro's other children assisted in Delimar's transition, being that both of her parents were Puerto Rican and only spoke very broken English.
With their help, Delimar grew up a healthy and happy child, going on to sail through college, marry the love of her life - a husband named Isaiah Robinson - and become stepmother to his 11-year-old son.
"My experience has definitely made me more protective of my family," she admitted. "And I have post-traumatic stress disorder, so meeting my husband, I had to unlearn a lot of things that were actually trauma responses.
"Navigating that and maintaining a healthy relationship was a learning curve, because you can get triggered.
"But he's been with me through it all."
Now, she and her mother's relationship is stronger now than ever, with Delimar claiming that the duo enjoy an hour-long phone-call to one another at least once week.
"As I've gotten older, I've realised that we have a lot more in common than I would have thought," she revealed. "We have the same exact laugh, the same mannerisms.
"She's a joy to be around. We have a beautiful relationship."
And when it comes to her father, Delimar and Isaiah visit her father - who now resides in Puerto Rico - as and when they can.
"I always felt like my dad was more of a sibling," she confessed. "Not in a bad way - he was just more laid back, so, we speak every now and again. He'll call me every other week or so."
"She didn't take me out of that window by herself"
Delimar has only visited Carolyn Correa once since she was jailed, where she claims she asked her captor about the possible involvement of an accomplice
"I try to put that aspect of the case to bed, but if I could find out, I'd love to, because justice needs to be brought for that. There's somebody still walking around who hasn't paid any consequences for what they did.
"I know that she didn't take me out of that window by herself - there's definitely somebody out there that assisted her."
She added: "But, whoever it was, Carolyn is protecting that person with her life."
Delimar went on to confess what the 'biggest question she had was': "Why? Why did you kidnap me? I did ask that when I saw her. I pointed out that she already had three other children and asked why she took me, but she didn't provide an answer.
"And she's a sociopathic liar, even if she did answer those questions, she'd probably have told another lie."
She also insisted she'd never like to sit down with Carolyn again.
Discussing the process of making the U documentary - a reflection of the events of the last 20 years - Delimar tells us that the experience took 'a lot of preparation, meditating and praying'.
Topics: US News, Crime, True Crime, News, Documentaries, TV And Film
Rhianna Benson