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Judge Returns Mexican Girl to Custody of U.S. Mom

A Mexican court has returned a long-missing teenage girl to her mother, concluding the woman's eight-year search.

Judge Cinthia Elodia Mercado says 13-year-old Alondra Diaz was returned to the custody of Houston resident Dorotea Garcia on Friday afternoon.

Diaz was taken to Mexico in 2007 by her father, Reynaldo Diaz, without her mother's consent, and her whereabouts had not been known until recently.

The case gained international attention last month after another girl, 14-year-old Alondra Luna, was mistakenly determined to be the missing girl and sent against her will to the United States.

DNA testing confirmed Alondra Diaz is Dorotea Garcia's daughter. Garcia has been searching for her for eight years.

Prosecutor Jose Martin Godoy Castro said late Thursday that the tests established the genetic link between Diaz and Garcia.

Video recordings circulated widely of Alondra Luna screaming and desperately resisting as police dragged her away. DNA testing performed after the girl was taken to the United States showed that Alondra Luna was not Garcia's daughter, and she returned to her real family in Guanajuato, Mexico.

With a media spotlight now on the case, Reynaldo Diaz delivered the real Alondra Diaz to family members who then presented her to authorities, saying she was prepared to go live with her mother.

Garcia had an emotional reunion with her daughter this week in a courtroom in the western state of Michoacan. But this time the judge waited for DNA confirmation.

The court opened a hearing Friday morning to officially consider the results of the new tests and determine custody of the girl.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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