SAN DIEGO, CA -A mother has finally been reunited with her seven-year-old son after he was abducted five years ago by his father and taken away to Mexico.
According to NBC News , the San Diego Attorney’s office says that the young boy had been living with his grandparents near Mexico City after his father, Julio Rocha, kidnapped him and left him there.
“I haven’t really celebrated Christmas or his birthday or anything,” the boy’s mother, Leilani Masumoto, told NBC 7 . “I was just waiting to get him back home. This will be our first Christmas together.”
Last week, Leilani’s prayers were answered when the authorities got a call from the grandparents neighbors, who saw a missing child poster online and recognized the boy in the picture.
After years of sadness, depression, and anguish … Leilani and her son were finally reunited.
“As soon as he came, I just broke down in tears,” Masumoto recalled.
Leilani, however, does not have the same feelings toward her son’s father. In fact, crying tears of joy for seeing him would be the last thing she would do if she saw him again.
“I think my first initial reaction would be to just slap him across the face. I don’t think he cared about Keoni, it’s just more the fact of taking him to hurt me and he accomplished that,” she said.
Right now, Leilani is just focused on getting Keoni settled back home. She is also focused on finding a school that focuses on special-needs students for Keoni, since he is autistic.
Authorities are still looking for Rocha, who will be facing felony kidnapping charges.
Rocha may be going by the name Miguel Martinez and might be staying with family in Virginia or North Carolina.
