This is the moment a woman who was kidnapped as a toddler is reunited with her long-lost parents almost 30 years to the day after she went missing in the 1980s.
Jin Ting, now a mum-of-three, was just three years old when she is believed to have been snatched off the streets while out by herself to buy fruit for her mum on 28th August 1986.
Affectionately known as ‘Ting Ting’, the now 33-year-old was not seen or heard from again, leaving her dad, Jin Guosheng, and mum, Chen Meiliang, on a country-wide search.
Video Credit: AsiaWire
Mr Jin, who is from the town of Dengbu in Yingtan City in East China’s Jiangxi Province, recalled: “My wife and I worked wherever we went, travelling to most of the country’s major cities.”
However, the couple’s search was ultimately fruitless until their decades-long search caught the attention of Chinese missing persons organisation Baobei Huijia (Baby Back Home) in March last year.
Staff at the not-for-profit organisation, which has reunited more than 2,000 lost or trafficked children with their biological parents since 2007, learned that Mr Jin and his wife had already given their DNA to the Yingtan police database in 2016.
They invited Mr Jin to register on Baobei Huijia’s forum, and volunteers soon discovered a woman matching Ting Ting’s age and description living in the city of Futian in East China’s Fujian Province.
The woman, who called herself ‘Ping Ping’, had also registered on the forum and was searching for her parents.
On 26th June, volunteers contacted her and asked her to take part in a DNA test, which confirmed that she was Mr Jin’s daughter.
Video Credit: AsiaWire
On 13th August, the couple were told a reunion had been arranged.
“I didn’t sleep for days, like something was running back and forth inside my heart,” Mr Jin said, adding: “My daughter. Gone for 30 years.”
Four days later, almost to the day Ting Ting went missing three decades ago, she saw her parents in a tearful reunion in front of the whole village.
Mr Jin said: “She told us she had a good life, and that her foster parents treated her well.”
The couple plan to follow Ting Ting back to Futian in order to meet her family.
“We will properly thank her foster parents, and their adoptive grandparents, for taking such good care of our daughter.”
It is unclear whether Ting Ting’s kidnapper – and all those involved in her trafficking – will ever be brought to justice.
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Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Alex Cope, Agency: Asia Wire Report
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