For one Wisconsin mother, "home for the holidays" is taking on a whole new meaning.
Kathy Amaya, who says her ex-husband abducted her young son David in the mid-1980s and fled to Mexico, has finally reconnected with him after David was caught trying to get back into the U.S., WEAU reports.
“One day my ex-husband came to my sister, [who] was watching him and picked him up and never returned him,” Kathy Amaya said. “I went on the Internet searching a lot on Facebook and MySpace and all of that, but I had no luck.”
On Oct. 30, Kathy Amaya got a call from a border patrol station in San Diego and told her that David Amaya was detained for trying to cross the border without proper documentation, NBC 7 reports.
Kathy Amaya found out that her son, who is now 37 years old, grew up with his grandparents in Mexico.
David Amaya is currently being sheltered by the Iglesia de Cristo Ministerios Llamada Final Inc de San Diego ministry, whose pastor helped arrange a phone call between him and Kathy.
“My father told me my mother had left me abandoned and orphaned,” David told NBC 7 while speaking through an interpreter, as he does not speak English. “I don’t know my mother, and I find out she’s been looking for me for 30 years, and I have the longing to meet her for the first time.”
The Border Patrol has set up a donation box at its San Diego County station in hopes to raise money so David can travel back to Chippewa Falls, Wis., in time for Thanksgiving.
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