Father arrested after teenager discovers he’d been abducted as a child.
By Raif Karerat
A child who had been reported missing in Alabama 13 years ago was discovered in Cleveland, Ohio earlier in the week, and the now-young adult only just discovered his status as a missing person himself.
Julian Hernandez, now 18, had been living with his father, Bobby Hernandez, under different aliases. But when the teen began applying to colleges, he learned that the Social Security number that his father gave him could not be verified, according to WVTM.
With the aid of his school counselor, Julian Hernandez then found himself on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children database.
His father, Bobby Hernandez, 53, was consequently arrested and charged with tampering with records, reported USA Today. Police classified the crime as a non-custodial abduction.
In August 2002, Julian Hernandez’s mother told Vestavia Hills that her 5-year-old’s father had agreed to take the boy to preschool, but the pair never returned, according to the Birmingham (Ala.) News.
Officers received “hundreds of leads over the years of where he might be, from Florida to out of the country — Canada — and we followed up on every one of them, and they all turned out to be a dead end until I got the call Monday,” Lt. Johnny Evans Vestavia Hills police told the Chicago Tribune.
The child’s mother was notified of the child’s recovery and that he was found safe and unharmed, a statement from Vestavia Hills Police Department said. The investigation is ongoing and Bobby Hernandez may face further charges.