A boy who?was abducted as a toddler, was finally reunited with his family after more than 30 years, all thanks to modern technology.?
On October 17, 1988. Mao Yin was? snatched outside the entrance of a hotel in Xi¡¯an in central Shaanxi province. His father, Mao Zhenjing, had stopped to get him some water on the way home from the nursery.?
After being abducted, Mao was sold to a childless couple in China¡¯s Sichuan Province who raised him as their son.
After Mao got abducted,?his biological parents did not give up the search for their missing son. Mao¡¯s mother, Mrs Li, quit her job after his abduction and handed out about 100,000 flyers in more than 10 provinces and municipalities, to find him at the time.?
South China Morning Post reports that Mrs Li has appeared on many television shows in China hoping her own child would watch her on one of the programmes one day.
Mrs Li became a volunteer with a group called ¡®Baby Come Back Home¡¯, in 2007 and since then she has helped reunite 29 children with their families.?
To trace Mao, police analysed his photo as a child and came up with a simulated image of Mao as an adult, with the help of facial recognition technology. This image was then compared to other photos in the national database.
According to reports, in April, the police received a tip-off about a man from Sichuan Province in south-west China, who had adopted a baby 32 years earlier.?
Police then traced the adopted child, now a 34-year-old man. A DNA test was conducted and it was found out that he was the son of Mao Zhenjing and Li Jingzhi.
Mao Yin was renamed Gu Ningning by his adoptive parents.
Mao was then reunited with his biological parents during a live broadcast. The livestream of the news conference broadcast by state broadcaster CCTV, showed Li holding her son¡¯s hands, tearful. Li was informed about the ¡®discovery¡¯ of her son on Mother¡¯s Day and she reportedly said, ¡®This is the best gift I have ever got on Mother¡¯s Day¡¯. She also said, ¡®I don¡¯t want to be separated from him anymore¡¯.?
All this was only possible because of the advances of technology, and we're glad the family was reunited.