Abducted man uses Google Maps to find way home after 23 years
A Chinese man who was abducted as a five-year-old has been reunited with his family - 23 years later.
Luo Gang was snatched on his way to kindergarten in the province of Sichuan and taken almost 2,000 kilometres away to live with a new family as their son.
"Everyday before I went to bed, I forced myself to re-live the life spent in my old home," Gang told Chinese news outlet Nhaidu.com, “so I wouldn’t forget.”
Two decades on, after hearing about a charity set up to reunite kidnapped children with their parents, Luo set down on paper the map he had carefully preserved in his mind over all those years, showing the layout of his home town.
He posted the crude picture to the Baby Come Home website, which aims to help the 200,000 Chinese children who are kidnapped or sold each year.
A volunteer recognised something in his story, suggesting his parents might have been a Sichuan couple who lost a son in the year Luo had so carefully remembered.
Eager for any clue, Luo turned to Google Maps, and was astonished to find that he could recognise features of the town near Guangan, particularly a pair of bridges located close together.
“That’s it! That’s my home,” shouted Luo, in tears.
Sichuan volunteers from Baby Come Home travelled to the Yaojiaba area and asked authorities to perform a paternity test. It found a match.
The family have since made a joyful reunion, but say the pain of their son's abduction will always be with them.
"I felt heartbroken. I couldn't eat or sleep and I cried every day thinking my son was missing and didn't have enough food or clothes out there," said Luo's mother, Dai Jianfang.
Baby Come Home says it has reunited 624 families, but over 12,000 parents and children are still searching for their relatives through the site.
