Woman snipped hair to prove girl was hers

By Joann Loviglio
The Associated Press

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So Cuevas pretended the 6-year-old girl had gum in her hair, removed five strands from the child's head, folded them in a napkin and placed them in a plastic bag.

"Because of TV, I knew they needed hair for the DNA," Cuevas said yesterday.

The DNA tests confirmed a mother's intuition.

The girl was Cuevas' only daughter, Delimar Vera, the girl everyone else believed had perished in a house fire when she was 10 days old.

Investigators believe a family acquaintance stole the baby from her crib, set the fire to cover the crime and raised the little girl as her own.

Carolyn Correa, of Willingboro, N.J., who was wanted on charges of arson and kidnapping, surrendered to police in Philadelphia yesterday afternoon, said her attorney, Jeffrey Zucker.

The little girl has been taken into state custody in New Jersey. It was not clear when she would be reunited with her mother.

Fire officials believed the 1997 blaze at Cuevas' home in Philadelphia was sparked by a home-rigged extension cord connected to a space heater. The fire was put out in 10 minutes, but Delimar's room was gutted, and investigators concluded that the infant's body must have been consumed by the intense heat and flames.

But Cuevas said several things made her suspicious.

"I went inside the room and looked in the crib and she wasn't there," Cuevas said, adding that the window was inexplicably open though it was a cold winter evening. Police and fire officials that night told the hysterical mother that "maybe it was my nerves."

Cuevas, 31, said she was also suspicious because Correa, 42, had announced that she was pregnant during a visit shortly after Delimar's birth. According to Cuevas, Correa abruptly ceased contact after the blaze.

Cuevas said she instantly recognized the child as her daughter at the Jan. 24 birthday party. It was unclear what brought the girl, who was being called Aliyah, and her biological mother to the same party.

She sought help from state Rep. Angel Cruz, who represents the neighborhood where Cuevas lives. Cruz said he was skeptical at first, but he called police, who contacted Correa for a DNA test that ultimately proved Cuevas right.

"It's a mother's way. It's motherly intuition," Cruz said.

Cuevas and Delimar's father, Pedro Vera, 39, had a baby boy after Delimar's disappearance but broke up under the strain of losing their daughter.

"Right now I want to see my daughter," Pedro Vera said. "I am so happy. I just want to see my daughter."

It will be up to a family court judge to determine where the girl will live.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company