Julian went missing in Alabama at age 5. After years of dead ends, officials said, the key tip came in October 30.
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The man accused of kidnapping Julian 13 years ago, his father Bobby Hernandez, will be in a Cuyahoga County courtroom on November 12.
“It was just great for me to be able to tell the mother…he is doing well”, Lt. Johnny Evans of the Vestavia Hills Police Department in Alabama said today. “His father provided for him as best as he could, you know, very successfully”.
Evans said Thursday that mother and son had since been in contact, but he was not sure whether it was by phone or other means. Police say she’s requested privacy.
A lead in the case came Sunday, when Vestavia Hills police were contacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Cleveland about a missing child.
“At the time of the abduction, it was suspected he was taken as non-custodial parental abduction”, police said in a press release.
“I am not particularly excited to meet my mother and whatever family comes with her”, the OP said. “They went and talked to him, and talked to the father, and that’s when the identification was made, ” the detective said.
Three days later, authorities confirmed that individual is Julian Hernandez. Hernandez could possibly face further charges in the future.
Police report that Julian, who was 5 years old at the time of his disappearance, did not know his real name or birthday.
Over the years, police investigated hundreds of possible sightings across the country without success, and when the authorities informed the mother about the apparition, she was cautious because of all previous cases of disappointment.
Bobby Hernandez, 53, is in custody after Julian Hernandez and his high school guidance counselor found a photo of the boy as a toddler posted on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) website.
What began as one teen applying for college turned to his discovery that he was a missing child.
“My mother is likely either living in Florida or Alabama, judging by my page on the missing children database”, OP said. He’s now 18. Falls says it’s unlikely he knew he was listed as missing.
Ralph DeFranco called Bobby Hernandez, who was living in Tremont under the alias Jonathan Mangina, a soft-spoken man. Hernandez also will face charges in Jefferson County for the abduction from 2002. That’s a class C felony carrying a prison term of 1-10 years. Now, he has been located in Northeast OH; 13 years after his father allegedly did not drop him off at preschool like he was supposed to do.
Julian Hernandez has just been found living with his dad outside Cleveland.
Reeves reported from Birmingham, Alabama.
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Hernandez is being held in the Cuyahoga County Jail on a charge of falsifying documents to get an ID.
