John McCarthy
NEW HAVEN — A Connecticut toddler who was abducted 25 years ago has been found alive in Mexico, with her identity confirmed by DNA testing, according to authorities.
Andrea Michelle Reyes was just 2 when she vanished from her home in New Haven in 1999, with cops long suspecting she had been snatched by her mom, Rosa Tenorio, who did not have custody.
Reyes’ family also believed the girl may have been in Mexico, but could never locate her, even as her dad repeatedly traveled there looking for them.
An investigation involving the FBI also went cold, until it was reviewed in 2023, according to the New Haven Police Department.
That was when cold-case Detective Kealyn Nivakoff managed to trace Reyes to Puebla using info from interviews, search warrants and social media accounts.
The identity of Reyes, now 27, was confirmed through “Rapid Relationship Testing” using her dad’s DNA, forensic genealogy company Othram said.
She remains in Mexico, while a warrant for her mom’s arrest remains active in the US, police said.
Othram said it is the seventh such case it has helped authoties with in Connecticut.
“Whether it is unidentified human remains, the identity of a suspect in a crime or, like in this case, confirming the identity of a woman who has been missing for decades, we do the same thing every day — we find answers for families,” its chief development officer, Kristen Mittelman, said.
