A boy who went missing in Alabama 13 years ago was found safe and unharmed in Cleveland with his father after applying for college scholarships raised red flags. A month before solving the case, the boy who is now 18 years old might have turned to Reddit for advice in solving his own mystery.
The post, which was already deleted, was entitled "When I was a child, my father kidnapped me without me knowing." It s cfocused on getting legal advice from other users. The original poster, Throwaway0805049, said in his post that he just learned he was abducted when he was applying for college scholarships and couldn't continue because of a problem with his social security number (SSN).
His social security number was unverified and this alerted authorities working on the case. He talked to their school counsellor and uncovered his father's secret for more than a decade.
He found out that he was listed in the database of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) when his number couldn't be verified. When he asked his father about it, he was told the truth.
Apparently, 13 years of his life was a lie and he confirmed that his father, Bobby Hernandez, 53 years old, abducted him when he was just 5 years old. According to a missing-children poster in the Charley Project, his father agreed to take him to preschool but instead, he swept all of his bank accounts and ran away with the child.
Julian Hernandez and his father lived with tampered records and assumed names. Bobby Hernandez has been charged with $250,000 bond for tampering records in Ohio and might face additional charges in Alabama.
Meanwhile, when his mother found out that he is safe and 700 miles away, she couldn't believe that after 13 years, he was found.
"Once she finally realized it was him, she was excited - she was ecstatic," Vestavia Hills Police Lt. Johnny Evans said.
"Our family was overjoyed this week to locate Julian and learn that he is safe. We want to thank everyone for their prayers and support during Julian's disappearance," a representative for Julian's mother said in a statement.
Though Throwaway0805049 claimed he is Julian, the teenager did not confirm that he was the one who posted the statement in Reddit. However, the details included in the post is similar with the case of Julian and these made people commenting on the thread assume that they are the same person.
"I'm not angry at my father in the slightest. I remember that he used to ask me 'If I ever committed a terrible crime, would you still love me?' I still do, even after learning everything," the post on Reddit said.
