Woman kidnapped as three-year-old reunited with parents 30 years later
A woman who was kidnapped as a toddler has been reunited with her long-lost parents almost 30 years to the day after she went missing.
Jin Ting, now a mum of three, was just three years old when she was believed to have been snatched off the streets while out by herself to buy fruit for her mum on August 28, 1986.
Affectionately known as Ting Ting, the now 33-year-old was not seen or heard from again, leaving her dad, Jin Guosheng, and mum, Chen Meiliang, on a country-wide search.
“My wife and I worked wherever we went, travelling to most of the country’s major cities,” Mr Jin, who is from the town of Dengbu in Yingtan City in East China’s Jiangxi Province, recalled.
But the couple’s search was ultimately fruitless until their decades-long search caught the attention of Chinese missing persons organisation Baobei Huijia (Baby Back Home) in March last year.
Staff at the not-for-profit organisation, which has reunited more than 2000 lost or trafficked children with their biological parents since 2007, learned Mr Jin and his wife had already given their DNA to the Yingtan police database in 2016.
They invited Mr Jin to register on Baobei Huijia’s forum and volunteers soon discovered a woman matching Ting Ting’s age and description living in the city of Futian in East China’s Fujian Province.
The woman, who called herself Ping Ping, had also registered on the forum and was searching for her parents.
Volunteers contacted her on June 26 and asked her to take part in a DNA test, which confirmed she was Mr Jin’s daughter.
The couple were told on August 13 a reunion had been arranged.
“I didn’t sleep for days, like something was running back and forth inside my heart,” Mr Jin said, adding: “My daughter. Gone for 30 years.”
Four days later, almost to the day Ting Ting went missing, she saw her parents in a tearful reunion in front of the whole village.
“She told us she had a good life and that her foster parents treated her well,” Mr Jin said.
The couple plan to follow Ting Ting back to Futian in order to meet her family.
“We will properly thank her foster parents and their adoptive grandparents for taking such good care of our daughter.”
It is unclear whether Ting Ting’s kidnapper – and all those involved in her trafficking – will ever be brought to justice.
– Australscope
Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.
You can also follow us on Facebook, download the Yahoo News app from iTunes or Google Play and stay up to date with the latest news with Yahoo’s daily newsletter. Sign up here.
