A Brazilian woman has been reunited with her biological family after more than three decades, after discovering the woman she had called mum was really a kidnapper that had snatched her from her cradle and then lied to her about her birth mother’s death.
Neuza de Jesus Oliveira, 36, was recently reunited with her biological mother and siblings in the municipality of Alto Paraiso in the state of Rondonia in the North Region of Brazil.
But tragically, although her birth mother is still alive, after years of remorse at the loss of her girl, she fell into a chronic depression and can now can barely walk or talk. Her condition is so bad that even though her daughter has returned, she has not even been able to acknowledge her.
Neuza told Newsflash: “It hurts me a lot because on 9th September I discovered my true story, a bombshell story.
“When I turned seven or eight years old, my adoptive mother came to me and said: ‘You are not my daughter and your father is not your father either.’
“I got a shock, but so far, so good. I tried to find out if my parents were alive and why I was adopted. Logically, she then told me that my biological mother had died and that my father stayed with me and my two siblings for a while.”
Neuza was given her immediate family’s first names, but nothing more. She said that at the time she was just glad her father had not abandoned her and had found a home for her instead. That said, she remained curious and decided to investigate her past.
She told Newsflash: “I chased up the paperwork and, to my surprise, it seems no record was made. Then I got a lot of doubts. I started to look for my siblings. Just for my siblings because I thought my mother was dead.”
She posted a message to a Facebook page for adopted children looking for their biological families in September.
She received a reply from a netizen, who informed her that they knew the woman’s siblings, along with another key piece of information.
Neuza told Newsflash: “But there was another surprise. My mother was alive.”
The netizen also informed Neuza that her mother suffered from depression, due to her daughter’s disappearance over 30 years ago.
The exchange led to a phone call between Neuza and her long lost brother, Celio Rodrigues Campos, who explained that Neuza had not been adopted but stolen.
Neuza’s supposedly adoptive mother, Maria, had actually abducted Neuza from her cot while she was at home in the municipality of Ariquemes, also in Rondonia state, in the 1980s. Her mother had briefly left her sleeping in her crib after breastfeeding her while she popped out to her own mother’s house nearby.
The kidnapper, Maria, and her partner raised Neuza in the municipality of Mutum-Parana, which is also in Rondonia state, almost a five-hour drive from where she was snatched.
On finding out her true story, Neuza confronted Maria. She told Newsflash: “On 26th September, I called my adoptive mother, saying that I found my mother.
“She disowned me straight away. She blocked me on WhatsApp, and she moved house.”
Despite the very recent cutting of ties, Neuza had long had a troubled relationship with her adoptive parents, who are retired, and had moved out of their house many years ago.
She told Newsflash: “I was humiliated, a child who never had anything, not even a doll to play with. When I was 15 I left home and went to work as a cook at a garimpo (an illegal mining camp). I got malaria a lot. I almost died of hepatitis.”
After being disowned by her adoptive mother, Neuza went to meet her possible biological family and carry out a DNA test, which resulted in a positive match.
However, reuniting with her mother, 62-year-old Ester Rodrigues Campos, was a painful experience for Neuza.
She told Newsflash that her real mum is now so ill that there has not been a proper reconciliation.
She said: “I cry because I still haven’t been able to go to hug her, to say: ‘How good you’re alive.’
“What hurts me most is that she’s ill and debilitated now. She doesn’t know what day, month, year or time it is.”
However, Neuza subsequently took her five-year-old daughter to meet her grandmother, and she reported that Ester showed emotion for the first time.
The DNA test that the 36-year old Neuza de Jesus Oliveira and her family made 
The biological mother of the 36-year old Neuza de Jesus Oliveira, Ester Rodrigues Campos
Neuza’s biological family also showed her her birth certificate, which revealed she was born in 1983, and not 1984 as her adoptive family had told her. It also revealed that her original name was Dina Rodrigues Campos.
Neuza is currently in a happy relationship and works as a cleaner. In addition to her five-year-old daughter, she has three sons, who are aged 16, 12 and 10.
Neuza hopes to continue seeing her real mother, who sadly suffers from schizophrenia in addition to her depression. She told Newsflash: “I want to bring her to my city to take care of her, but we still don’t have the means to bring her. But I will try, God willing.”
Neuza also plans to take her adoptive mother to court for kidnapping. She told Newsflash: “I will fight for justice.”
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Story By: Sofija Dizdarevik, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash
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