The Disappearance of Delimar Vera | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elena and this is [Music] morbid this is morbid this is morbid
this is morbid oh it's morbid it's morbid and guess what we did another Tik Tok hey and it was really funny it was a fun
one we used our girl kale Lowes we did and it was awesome you know name and likeness or whatever it is yeah and you
guys have been hilarious about it so thanks for for uh supporting our Tik Tok Journey with my book shouldn't be
outside enjoying the sunlight should be in C cave the fun an unhinged thing to say to a human being hilarious hilarious
I think even kale would agree that that's [ __ ] hilarious but like whoa yeah how does your brain just say to
another person so calm you should be in a cave you should be in a cave yeah I love it I think it's hilarious and I
love her reaction cuz she's just like what what what the [ __ ] are you talking about so good oh but that Tik Tok was
really fun to film yeah you guys have been amazing about it so thanks for being so great what's your Tik Tok
handle you [ __ ] uh what is it I think it's Elena to the max my everything is Elena to the max you got to let the
people know every time that's how we're going to drive people to your Tik to I am and we we'll be doing more and as
September 17th approaches which is the day that the book comes out the butcher game The Butcher game.com if you need to
order something you could pre-order it it might come the day before who knows that's always fun and like more signed
copies might be happening maybe right who knows you never know the world is an oyster and it's yours and it's my oyster
yeah no of theirs no well it's all of ours yeah everybody's oyster we can all have a part of shellfish allergy I
actually don't like shellfish so it's my like meatball sub I would say I have to
tell you something I told you I was never going to eat oysters again I ate them vibrio I ate them but I'm only
eating them in places where like I feel like the water is Super Fresh it's a Vibe vibrio is also a Vibe
no vibrio is actually not a Vibe it's a Vibe it's some kind of VI Vio is a is a is a dang dark with fire my friend I
know well YOLO you know here we are but YOLO YOLO as the kids would say I don't think they say that any yo y
accidentally said yo yo y here we are know you know I have an interesting case today to tell you all about I do it's
kind of like not really like well that's not true I was going to say it's not like anything we it's not like anything
we've ever done totally different but it's not um it's sort of it's like in a different wheelhouse but it's still our
wheelhouse I feel all right it's a kidnapping I'd like to warn you at the top of the show okay so it's a little
bit intense okay but I'm going to also tell you it has a happy ending oh good okay and nobody dies there's no murder
look at that yeah so that's wow that is different so here we are different wheelhouse all right so should we dive
in let's dive in it's been a long time since I did that and it just came to me know I did all right so we're going to
be talking about The Disappearance of Delmar Vera Delmar Vera was born December 5th 1996 seven so like we're
about the same age look at that to I think it's pronounced loose I looked it up quas and Pedro Vera a young couple
they were living in Fonville North Philadelphia loose was beyond excital are you what here we go and
we're excital excital lose was beyond excited about the arrival of her baby daughter but she always maintained her
then husband Pedro hadn't been super stoked about the prospect of having children he was like yeah woohooo like
according to her not super excited it's not great in fact according to her when the baby was born Pedro actually refused
to sign the birth certificate which she pointed to as evidence that he quote did
not want the child I think that's pretty glaring evidence I would say yeah I'm like I don't love that that's really sad
I know but a little more than a week later on December 15th loose was home with Pedro their new baby delar which I
think is such a pretty name yeah and their two sons who at that time were four and five and around 7:00 p.m. there
was a knock on the door and loose answered it to find a woman who she'd never met before standing on her
doorstep the woman Carolyn Carrera was actually Pedro's cousin by marriage she was from New Jersey and she said she was
there hoping that Pedro might take a look at her car she said her car was having break problems Pedro was like
good with car stuff so she kind of just showed up from New Jersey and said hey take a look at my breaks okay r
yeah unexpected this is why I don't answer the door oh I never answer the door no I literally never answer the
door even when it's people I'm expecting i s Drew you said no can you get the door please oh I yeah I don't even
answer the door then yeah nope nope but Pedro agreed to take a look at the car but before he did he said he needed to
run some errands and go grocery shopping so while he was out the two women remained at the house just kind of
making small talk cuz remember they don't know each other so it's like a pretty awkward situation but she's kind
of family like she she's so she loses trying to like be a good Entertainer i' be like sorry but she
said later on she would describe it as an uncomfortable conversation yeah I can imagine and also having just given birth
a little over a week earlier I don't think you'd really want to be entertaining by yourself no you don't
but because she had just given birth only a week earlier or like a little more than a week earlier the subject of
a baby came up naturally and this woman Carolyn mentioned that she and her boyfriend Andrea Moore had also just
recently had a baby she said same sister wow now as the women were chatting downstairs L suddenly heard a loud bang
upstairs that sounded like an explosion and the baby sleeping upstairs what the [ __ ] so she is obviously terrified and
she runs upstairs and goes into delmar's room but by the time she reached the room a small fire had broken out and the
room was beginning to fill with smoke holy [ __ ] now despite the large amount of smoke now and the fumes just rapidly
f the room loose was able to get to the crib she was completely determined to get there and got there but delar was
nowhere to be seen what the [ __ ] she was gone in her own room yep she had just
been sleeping in her room and then she heard a loud bang and the baby was gone by the time she got to the crib that's
everyone's worst nightmare and it's also just like how did this happened she was
upstairs and I've been downstairs this whole time like where's the baby so a few seconds later the smoke had become
unbearable and loose was forced to out of the room after catching her breath she tried again to go back in the room
and get to the crib wow she actually suffered Burns to her face and her arms but when she reached the crib her first
impression was confirmed there was definitely no baby in that CRI the [ __ ] now she also noticed that the window in
the room was open and she knew that there was no way she would have done that herself just one having the baby in
the room by herself she wasn't going to open the window but also it was a cold night so that it just wouldn't have been
something that she'd do so this was shocking but the fire had grown out of control at that point and she didn't
have time to think because also she had other children that she had to get to oh
yeah she has a four and five-year-old so they were forced outside and we're this
is heartbreaking neighbors just could hear her screaming my baby my baby oh God over and over again so hearing the
noise and seeing the smoke and fire from the house coming from the house a neighbor 20 uh 20-year-old Jose Rosario
rushed over and tried to get into the house to save the baby later he told journalist that he heard crying so
covering his face he tried to climb the stairs to get to the baby but the smoke was so thick he just couldn't get in
there he said I tried the best I could but the smoke was choking me other neighbors also tried to help like Chico
fron who tried to douse the house with his garden hose but it just the fire was out of control a garden hose wasn't
going to do anything he told a reporter the Flames were just too much damn so firefight arrived at the scene quickly
and they pushed back what was now a really big crowd and they were all just the crowd was shouting like save the
baby save the baby oh man frazon remembered the neighbors were outside yelling there's a baby in there there's
a baby and loose also reported to the firefighters that she had gone to her daughter's room when the when the fire
first broke out but that she had found no baby in the crib where she had expected her baby Delmar to be that's
horrifying now there's no documentation of how firefighters responded to the claims
but it's pretty clear from their later statements that they didn't believe loose at the time why the [ __ ] would she
say that I don't really know within about 10 minutes firefighters had things under control luckily and the fire was
extinguished but the small row house had been completely gutted and there was no
sign of little Delmar now just then Pedro returned to find the house destroyed his wife being packed into an
ambulance and he found out that his daughter was consumed by the fire that's what that's what firefighters told him
holy [ __ ] yeah Delmar ended up being declared dead at the scene and fire officials explained to Pedro that they
found no body because her remains were completely destroyed by the Flames now just up front that is not what happened
so I don't think for a second that that's what happen but that's what this family was told holy [ __ ] but they never
believed it wow Pedro didn't believe it and neither did loose wow so the next day fire Captain Henry doberry told the
press the fire was caused by a home rigged extension cord connected to a space heater which must have thrown a
spark at some point and started the fire oh man neighbor Gloria moika said it's a
shame because they were just trying to find a way to keep themselves warm yeah loose was discharged discharged excuse
me from Temple University Hospital just one day after the fire and she learned that not only were there no remains to
bury but also that as a result of their not being a body the medical examiner actually couldn't issue a death
certificate or even legally declare Delmar dead holy [ __ ] so like firefighters First Responders said like
decare their dead at the scene but they couldn't legally do that like like U like firefighters could but they
couldn't have it on record Like official record exactly and if the parents wanted
or needed that formality they were going to have to go and petition a court to get their child declared legally dead
yeah when they don't know that for sure exactly wow so the family was uh understandably devastated yeah but but
they didn't really have a lot of choice but to move on and try to make things the best they could for their two living
children so they moved to a new house and in 1999 loose gave birth to a fourth child a boy that they named Samuel they
felt happy about adding to their family obviously but the loss of a child took a
really heavy toll on them of course and in December of 2022 or excuse me 2002 loose and Pedro separated for good
that's so common it is when you lose a child when you was a child and just like grief in general like yeah that can tear
people apart and by that time they really just agreed on very little and their communication was just it had
gotten really bad but they did agree on one thing they both believed that Delmar
was still alive in 2004 L said I always knew that my daughter did not die in that fire they were actually both very
public about their beliefs Gloria moha recalled every time I'd see Pedro he'd say the same thing my baby's alive I
know it wow they just like like felt it in their hearts and it's like you can see how like the whole thing changed his
perspective on yeah like being a father with this child you know what I mean like you can tell he immediately was
like that's my baby and my baby's alive it's like a very cliche thing to say but
you don't know what you have till it's gone yeah you know it's like obviously he was like that's my child and they
were correct it sounds like so it's like they both have a that parent definitely now Pedro wasn't just
convinced that his daughter was alive but he was also determined to find her wherever she had gone hell yeah Pedro I
know let's go moika said he would tell me he was pursuing it though what exactly that meant how he was pursuing
it remains unclear but you know what he had intentions to yeah so on January 24th 2004 loose went to a family party
thrown by Pedro's Sister Evelyn where she spotted a young girl who looked to be about 6 years old according to loose
the girl quote bore a striking resemblance to herself and her other children stop loose like we said never
believed Delmar uh died in the fire so when she saw the child she instantly felt that it was Delmar holy [ __ ] and
she's just at a family party and at a family party mhm that feeling became even stronger when she realized that the
girl's mother was Carolyn K I think it's kareah I I didn't trust this lady the second you said she showed up at the
door she just showed up at the door from New Jersey randomly and was like are I didn't want to say it for fear
that like she was an innocent bystander here was just so I was keeping it inside
but I was like I don't know about this girl imagine like don't you imagine this but
listener imagine your child goes missing from your home while a weird stranger is
there and then you go to a family party and you see what you know is your child or like very very strongly believe as
your child and the lady who you had a weird feeling about already is claiming to be the mother no or is the lady that
took this this child to the party like you Del or loose must have felt like she was in an alternate [ __ ]
universe and the the feeling of like helplessness at first must have been unreal because it's like what do I do
well everyone's going to think I sound cucko nut Banas and it's like if you know that's your child you're like well
I'm going to burn the I'm going to like Scorch the Earth to this child back so like I guess let's [ __ ] go like that
would be my i' be like let's go let's [ __ ] go like I'm going to burn the whole place down I would like I'm
getting that kid back well don't you worry loose is the baddest [ __ ] in the game I knew it about loose so Carolyn
introduced this girl as a Leah was like this is my daughter Aaliyah but Loose just couldn't shake the feeling that not
Aaliyah this was her daughter oh my God and she was like she started putting two and two together and she's
like I don't know how but somehow Carolyn kidnapped my baby on the night of the fire like I just know she kep her
distracted downstairs mhm she later told a reporter those dimples were all the DNA I needed to be certain cuz she had
these little di some Mama [ __ ] she had that child for like a little over a week
literally a little over a week like that's like like luckily like luckily many of us do not have to worry about
like what how you would be able to identify your child older when not seeing them for their entire life that
but hearing this you're just like damn like that parent like love and knowledge for your like who your child is that's
unbelievable it's a force it's a over a weeked you knew this infant newborn and then you see them years later and you're
like that's my kid and like let's be real most newborns look alike like exactly newborns all look pretty similar
that's unbelievable yeah that's really unbelievable this family is icon yeah they're incredible so
according to Pedro's cousin Jose Vera this was actually not the first time either Pedro or loose had seen Aaliyah
and while they weren't exactly close with Carolyn they were still related and had some contact with her over the years
but not much but Jose Vera said they agreed the child looked like them and Pedro always thought it was his daughter
but nothing ever happened till now oh damn so he claimed that although although Pedro had seen the girl in
person at family functions loose had only ever seen her in photographs before this family function where she's like
that's my daughter that's my child and she really didn't have a lot of contact with the family since ending her
relationship with Pedro in 2002 but still they both together reported their suspicions to the police and nothing
ever came of the complaints like from seeing the photographs and that kind of thing my God but now in 2004 with the
girl just standing right in front of her loose was like without a doubt 100% my daughter like I I definitely thought so
before but now I know but now I'm in front of her I'm in her presence I know it and she actually told the host of the
party that she believed Aaliyah was Delamar but given the unbelievable nature of the claim the host just kind
of dismissed what she was saying and was like no no no that's Carolyn's daughter
like you must be mistaken and probably felt bad probably was like yeah like that I have to tell you like I'm sorry
know somebody else's daughter right but L's own brother even doubted what she was saying and said we thought she was
just traumatized by the fire which like you can understand that yeah cuz it's like that would be traumatizing I can't
even fathom the amount of trauma she would have she did have I'm sure it's like so and Trauma makes you do some
things that you know you wouldn't normally do or like makes you think things she's desperate to find her child
again so maybe this is one of those instances where it's like she's just desperate or maybe not or maybe not so
later that afternoon Luc was like okay you guys can all think I'm cuck nuts bananas but I'm not and I'm going to Pro
it all she's like NOP so she approached the girl the little girl and just made small talk with her and then right
before Aaliyah was about to run off L told her oh you have some gum in your hair like let me help you with that and
while she removed the gum shut up or like while she pretended to to remove the gum she used it as an opportunity to
get a hair sample that she could take to the police for DNA testing when I said is a [ __ ] icon
when I said baddest [ __ ] in the game I meant it lose lo I want to like Shake loose's hand
like [ __ ] loose that is genius level she's so nonchalant about it too she told reporters later because of TV I
knew they needed hair for the DNA oh [ __ ] like looses she's like I just watch TV I learned some [ __ ] that's
Elite that's Elite Behavior loose and and also that's Elite Behavior because you did nothing to scare this girl and
that's a m and nothing to inform her that her you know her anything was being called
into question like that's unbelievable unbelievable truly unbelievable because your first instinct might be to just
like you know like again you're traumatized you're desperate to find your child yeah you would want to run up
to her and just be like you're my baby taking you with me but this child clearly was gone barely a a week after
her birth whoever mother quote unquote she thinks is her mother that's the only mother she's known that's the thing
she's 6 years old she's been raised for 6 years by Carol you can't scare her you
can't make her question her whole upbringing you can't you don't know what kind of life she's had you don't know
anything about that so it's like you can't just run up to her and be like I think you're my kid like she's six like
she's going to be like what so doing that in such a way that is one brilliant into totally nonchalant and not
upsetting to that girl at all is like Mama Mama [ __ ] well done loose so a few days after the party loose brought the
haris to her local Philadelphia police uh Precinct to ask for help and they redirected her to a lab where she could
actually get the DNA testing done hell yeah according to the official story remember Delmar Vera had died in a
tragic fire and police never believed she was kidnapped so there was actually little they could have done to help her
at the time according to representative Angel Cruz who would eventually prove instrumental in solving this case the
language barrier between loose spoke very little English and law enforcement might have caused additional confusion
and prevented faster action I'm sure so loose had hoped to get the DNA test done
to prove that Aaliyah was her daughter but with limited English language skills no information about how to access
Laboratory Testing and of course little financial resources that kind of thing is so expensive yeah the chances that
she would get answers were pretty slim but after hearing her story though a neighbor suggested that Luc seek help
from representative Ang Cruz who represented the largely Latino Philadelphia neighborhood that loose was
living in at the time Cruz said I must admit when loose first came to me with this story I had trouble believing her I
mean it's it's it's an incredible story it is yeah but something in the story struck him as being true so he agreed to
speak with law enforcement on her behalf and explain what she had told him he was
like I don't know but I'll try hell yeah Cruz now when the fire first broke out in Pedro and luc's home in 1997 her
Instinct was to run to the the daughter's room and save her yeah it's worth noting she had been alerted to the
danger because of the loud bang not the fire itself which hadn't broken out yet by the time she reached the room huh and
when she reached the crib Delmar had already vanished and then the fire began yeah that's the thing like when I was
first telling that story you heard loud bang runs upstairs sees that the crib is
empty and then the room starts filling with smoke and the fire bre I was wondering like cuz I'm like what is this
loud bang like what happened here exactly and you could assume like oh that was the space heater exping that's
when you said that I was like oh that must have been it but who knows maybe it was somebody opening the window maybe it
was yeah a ladder being thrown on the side of the house I don't know yeah so all that to say though when loose
reported to fire officials that her daughter was missing she meant that the girl hadn't been in the house when the
fire began but as Angel Cruz pointed out it's entirely possible that because of that language barrier investigators just
thought that she meant her daughter was trapped in the house during the fire absolutely I could see that which you
understand that of course any claims loose and Pedro made after the fire were just dismissed as those of grieving
parents struggling to accept being willing to and also when loose initially took the lock of hair to the police she
brought it to the front desk of the precinct cuz how would she know to bring I would to do with it but the receiving
officer had no prior knowledge of the case and there wasn't any kind of translator there to help with the
barrier the language barrier oh man so she wasn't able to really convey like how important this was and what this was
huge what the background tier was yeah that's so frustrating yeah it is so to Angel Cruz who spoke fluent Spanish the
story like we said was equally unbelievable and his Instinct though was to respond exactly how law enforcement
agents had over the years but the fact that loose had never wavered in her her belief and she was so thoroughly
convinced that the girl was her daughter seemed good enough a reason to him to at
least follow up yeah so he contacted the police on her behalf and he was successfully able to convince them to
follow up on this claim another good another goodie I know this is full that's what I told you it
started off and you're like what the [ __ ] are you about to tell me what is going on but I'm like no it's a it's a
good story yeah you're like I promise you I promise you guys this just keeps going up and up and up it does and it
will yeah so given the details of the crime and the ages of the alleged or the age of the alleged victim the case was
handed over to Lieutenant Michael Bole of Philadelphia uh Special Victims Unit an episode of SVU if you will in late
February detectives and Agents from Child Protective Services went to Carolyn's home in New Jersey and
explained the situation now given that so much depended on the outcome of the DNA tests Aaliyah was actually removed
from the home and temporarily placed in a foster care while investigators tried to untangle the details of the case it's
like that's so sad and she's probably remember like we said this is the only mom she's ever known has no idea what's
going she little girl she's probably like what the like what is going on yeah and it's like and again like this is
this is all because somebody stole her MH and it's like loc is just trying to get her back and obviously they have to
go through the steps the proper steps to do they can't just rip her out of a home
and be like well she's yours now like you I mean like they could get that like that's necessary but like man this kid
didn't ask for any of this no and poor loose and Pedro didn't ask for of this Carolyn like just victimized everybody
in this family she victimized that child yeah exactly just to get some she wanted
yeah so according to Carolyn she had given birth to her daughter Aaliyah in December of
1997 right around the same time that loose had her baby oh wow in fact other family members and her own boyfriend at
the time remembered her being pregnant and coming home with a baby at the end of December despite the number of times
that Pedro had voiced his suspicions nobody ever thought to question Carolyn and her boyfriend's claims because why
would you ever be like what would make you do it you know that's the thing that's the thing now after all while
newborn babies do get kidnapped it's kind of a rare occurrence yeah I mean you're not that's not the first thing
you're thinking that these people staged a wild coup to steal your newborn and not only that like I'm talking about
like their own family few people would want to believe their own relatives uh capable of this no can you imagine of
that no like in your own family that somebody in your own family stole another person's baby in your own family
absolutely not out of their crib after starting a fire in their house it's so beyond but this time through luc's
insistence and the new hair evidence and pending DNA results it was compelling enough that at least a few members of
law enforcement were starting to really take this seriously let's go everybody at first everybody's like yeah we'll
follow up but like I don't know it was it was a case of let's [ __ ] go and now it's like let's [ __ ] go exactly
so in late February the results of the DNA test conducted on aiyah hair came back and provided vital answers the girl
that Carolyn had been passing off as her daughter Aaliyah for the past six years
nope that was delam Mar Vera [ __ ] Carolyn yeah [ __ ] Carolyn well what the [ __ ] with the results in hand Lieutenant
Bole and his partner returned to Carolyn's home in New Jersey to confront her but by the time they got there she
had already fled leaving her three other young children behind oh it's on site with Carolyn on site like [ __ ] you
Carolyn what an [ __ ] that's the thing it's like she's just out for her and hers you're evil you stole someone's
newborn you [ __ ] [ __ ] and then you abandon your three other children to flee law enforcement after you got
caught it's I it's [ __ ] to steal any newborn like don't keep it that weird to steal a newborn child from your family
it's what like I know you I know you married into this family but that's your family like who the [ __ ] are you Carolyn
I hope mhm I hope I hope we see a see something for Carolyn at the end of this well investigators now that she was on
the run theorized that certain she'd been found out and uh would be arrested she chose to become a fugitive rather
than face the consequences Oh you mean coward yes exactly because the I mean everything more or less confirmed her
guilt in the eyes of detectives course DNA just proved it you stole a baby so in a statement to the press a law
enforcement official stated their belief that on the night of December 15th 1997
Caroline started the fire and kidnapped dmar whom she passed off as her own daughter wow and when they realized that
she had fled multiple arrest warrants were issued for charges including arson kidnapping and concealing the
whereabouts of a child so she was facing like serious serious charges here not just kidnapping like that's a serious
charge of itself arson and concealing the whereabouts of a child like did you not think about this yeah she did I
don't know yeah she didn't care despite the circumstances though loose couldn't help but feel Joy that her daughter
wasn't only alive but would also be reunited with her in the days to come yeah boil told reporter she sat there
and Shook and cried and kept saying thank you thank you thank you but this is going to be tough absolutely this is
not this kid is 6 years old that's the thing on the other not so right side of things this was just the beginning of a
slow and like you said very difficult process facing everybody involved most importantly Aaliyah or really Delmar had
only ever known Carolyn to be her mother like we've said and she was now being told that Not only was Carolyn not her
mother but Carolyn was her kidnapper who had stolen her from her actual mother just days after her birth a concept that
no [ __ ] six-year-old would ever be able to wrap their head around you can't can't even imagine a grown adult finding
that out no a teenager finding that out how how do you explain that to a six-year-old like without creating like
first of all creating so many new fears yeah that they were kidnapped out of their crib disillusioning their entire
world like that just that's a glass shatter on your entire world and now you have to reform that bond with that child
like you're going to have a natural something's there cuz obviously you knew that was your child like your bond is
strong it's in there but she's like she's probably going to Miss Carolyn and like feel kind weird but there's so many
layers that you could point out here I just feel so bad for I feel so bad for um for because she by she ends up going
by Aaliyah because that's what she's been known as life that makes sense it's and also like how like that's a pretty
big thing of loose and Pedro to do to be like you know what we'll keep your name
Aah like your kidnapper named you that that's all you know and we're not going to and we're not going to change your
name like you know I mean like I wouldn't even change like a puppy's name far into you know I mean like and it's
like that that's the and also like you said your kidnapper named you that right and also it's like I named you something
like you were you know what I mean like I named you delar like that was the name
I chose for you it's almost like and now I I can't call you that it's like a different thing to grieve yeah like
luckily your child is still alive healthy and youing that identity that you created for them when they were born
exactly that's a lot on everybody yeah and the other thing was further complicating matters which were already
insanely complicated like we're pointing out now L spoke very little English and
Aaliyah spoke no Spanish oh so their ability to communicate with each other at least initially required a translator
and the services of a professional social worker so it's all very like I'm sure they did their best to make it like not
as clinical as it had to be still that's like not a setting any six-year-old is going to be super open in W so Carolyn
did all this and also took her out of her culture and didn't teach her the language that she would have been taught
yep wow yep wow Carolyn wow unreal now shortly after the discovery of all this Caroline accompanied by her attorney
turned herself into to the authorities in Philadelphia good as you should the arrest was a welcome news to Luc and her
family and Pedro she told her reporter if she was so evil then and started a fire she could do that now with the kids
inside yes absolutely that's the other thing she could have killed her other two children with that fire Absolut EXA
what I was just going to say she didn't give a [ __ ] and also she abandoned her
other kids to run away from this yeah exactly FL her now detectives in Philadelphia were equally pleased with
Carolyn's surrender with Captain John Darby saying we are pleased that this phase of a complex protracted and
emotionally charged investig investigation has been completed with the subject's arrest in this short time
me too same now while the arrest appeared to be the beginning of the end of the police involvement in the case it
also raised um just as many questions as it answered because to those who knew her the arrest and allegations of a
kidnapping seemed 100% impossible evely and Vera Pedro's sister said the rest of
the family wasn't surprised when Caroline showed up with a baby in December because they had all believed
that she had been pregnant wow in fact in early January 1998 a few weeks after the fire she went to the police station
in New Jersey in uh Willingboro and reported that she had given birth at home a bizarre incident they now believe
was intended to cover her tracks should there be any suspicion holy [ __ ] because
obviously she hadn't given birth anywhere she not no of her having given birth in a hospital so she was like oh I
have to do like she researched this somehow or like she figured out that she had to go report this that she quote
unquote gave birth at home so that there would be record of it and also damn that's cunning as [ __ ] that's the thing
it's that's really [ __ ] up and the fact that everybody believed she was pregnant like she had to have been
showing so yeah like what hello what going on here now when it came to Aaliyah there was some tension between
the two of them but for the most part everybody remembered that Carolyn doed on the girl Evelyn Vera said she treated
that little girl better than her three other kids that's also [ __ ] up I'm glad she
treated her well but I'm sorry for those other three children Aaliyah was enrolled in private school and although
she was just 6 years old she had already begun a modeling career appearing in television and print ads which also
you're just flaunting her you know what it like there's so many layers there that I'm like the psych but in this I'm
not saying anything about like kidss modeling I'm saying in this specific case you kidnapped this child and now
she's appearing in television ads and you're like oh like that's my baby yeah the [ __ ] pathology and the psychology
behind that you could spend years studying yep what and it's like that's definitely you just living through this
child and wanting to get the like pats on the back for like look at my pretty little girl in the moding ad just like
mangling her in front of the people who are like pry sure that's my kid like that's the that's the aspect that I'm
looking at like what the fu when they said she's evil they are 100% correct this woman is evil like that's
diabolical now what made the story even stranger was that there were many members of the Vera family who not only
knew of Pedro and luc's belief that their daughter was still alive but several of them like a lot of people
didn't believe it but several family family members did believe that Carolyn's daughter was actually Delmar
wow wow Jose ver said we told my cousin peder about it but nothing ever happened
nothing was done I don't know why cuz what do you do because they did report certain things to the police but the
police were like we don't have any [ __ ] evidence of that they were like that's crazy and there was language
barriers there was so many things doesn't seem like it was like top of the to-do list for the police at the time
until loose came in there with the hair yeah my girl loose and then Cruz was like I'll take care of this exactly now
even Carolyn's boyfriend at the time was actually suspicious of her story in 1999
he confronted Carolyn about his suspicions and demanded to take a a paternity test to prove whether the
child was his or not and at that point she broke up with him and never had any contact with him after that you wish
that and I understand like it's this is you know a position none of us can imagine being in but I wish that he once
she had broken up with him he had gone to police and been like I think this kid was stolen I think this kid was
kidnapped I don't think this kid ISS but again I can't imagine being in his position thinking that of of your
significant other and honestly he might have I didn't I didn't come across that but like Pedro and loose had gone to the
police that guy did too then like kudos to him and I'm sorry it didn't work out but like I know but even if he didn't
I'm like I can't imagine that position so but you just wish like thinking back cuz also you probably like if you're
having those suspicions and and then she breaks up with you all of a sudden pretty much confirms it but then you
must sit there with your own thoughts and say no I'm insane like there's no way I'm claiming this kid is not mine
like that's why am I thinking that you know like yeah there's a lot of layers lot guil right and having truly believed
Carolyn to have been pregnant at the time the breakup also left him with troubling unanswered questions he said
my question is where is the child she and I had together it's a traumatic experience oh I can't imagine because he
thought she had been pregnant with his baby and then she's got this child and he's like I don't think this is our
child and she's like well [ __ ] you and just breaks up with him and cuts off contact it's like cuz now he's probably
thinking like is that my child and I can't see them now like what the [ __ ] and now I'm feeling some layer of guilt
cuz I still don't believe that's my kid like what happened to my child that I thought you were pregnant with it's wild
this woman [ __ ] so many people up she did and it's a whole family o if some members of the family were stunned by
the Revelation that Aaliyah was delar there were others who were less surprised by the news after all this
actually wasn't the first time Carolyn had been in trouble with the law I'm shocked or the first time she'd made up
a wild story to explain away someone's suspicions in 1996 she had actually been arrested and charged with starting a
fire at a New Jersey medical office where she'd been working as a billing clerk according to police Carolyn had
been stealing business checks and cashing them but when she believed her boss had got on to what she was doing
she quote tried to destroy evidence by setting fire to the office wow Carolyn once an arsonist always an
arsonist yeah also there were people still inside the building at the time she set the fire oh this she doesn't
care about killing like she doesn't care as long as she's getting what she wants
out of it like she it's pure luck that she hasn't yeah that I've heard from you yet Carolyn's out for Carolyn and
Carolyn she doesn't give a [ __ ] but because there was people in the building at the time she set the fire she was
charged with aggravated arson as she should be in addition to the fraud and theft charges but she agreed to plead
guilty to a third degree charge in exchange for probation and community service I'm sorry if someone tries to
burn down a building with people inside of it that's attempted murder also let me tell you if I was in that
[ __ ] office at the time that she had set it a blaze and I found out that she got probation in community
service I would be through the [ __ ] wild I'd be calling everybody that seems really wild to me like that's not enough
and also but wait there's more that's what this story should be titled but wait there's more it was also not the
only time Carolyn had claimed to be pregnant when she wasn't oh you don't say in 2000 while working at a drugstore
she told multiple co-workers that she was pregnant even though she never showed any physical signs of being
pregnant that fall she took maternity Lea and when she returned to work and Trigger warning she says something
terrible she claimed that the baby was still born and even went so far as to show several of her co-workers a
photograph of a dead newborn I don't even know how to respond to that mhm her boss said it was kind of
gruesome I really didn't know what to say to her is one of the grossest people I've
heard of like that's she's gross unreal that's unbelievable this case I obviously
whenever a child that is presumed to have been missing for many many years is recovered it's remarkable but in this
case the most unbelievable part of it probably was Carolyn's version of events that led to her taking on the role of
Aaliyah's mother according to her she did go to Pedro and luc's home on December 15th
1997 but she didn't kidnap Delamar she said Pedro handed the girl over for a few inexplicable reasons and she never
had any idea why he did that in a 2005 interview she said I've thought about it why didn't I question it yeah but it
made my emptiness go away so she just never questioned his actions and you know that um that baby
had a mother that you were sitting talking to downstairs and it filled your emptiness though to steal her newborn
yeah totally yeah definitely okay that makes sense that makes it fine also that just doesn't make any sense whatsoever
fine it's fine if her story seemed uh entirely implausible it only got stranger from there she also claimed
that loose had not only known the truth about her daughter all along but actually she had been there when Pedro
handed the baby over after the fire broke out nope and as evidence that she was telling the truth she pointed to the
number of times that Pedro had visited her at her and her family at their home in New Jersey including one occasion
when he she said he was accompanied by loose she said why is it that Pedro is not arrested I didn't do this by myself
and he gave me the child why didn't he get the kid before if he would have come to me and got her it wouldn't hurt me as
bad as it's hurting me now here's the thing too the statement that she just made that says why didn't he
get the kid before yeah you don't love that kid no the kid you don't refer to your kid as the kid why didn't he get
the kid I've never referred to my CH like what why didn't she go get that the kid over there like what like no I don't
believe [ __ ] all that you're saying like we said Carolyn's out for Carolyn yeah
while authorities never believed that Pedro Vera was involved in his daughter's kidnapping the charges
against did allege that she had not acted alone but the documents only named an unnamed conspirator and no additional
arrests were ever made that's horrifying CU that's what I'm wondering she was downstairs
distracting loose exactly somebody came in that room and stole that child for her like she was involved obviously but
like she didn't do the ACT herself right like I'm sure she came kind of thing but
who the [ __ ] was that isn't that interesting that it's the person is only name is only like referred to as an
unnamed uh conspirator cuz it's like who is this person that would go into a nursery and steal a newborn out of a
window also they had to have a really compelling story to to be uned in all of this no that's wild yeah it's weird but
in 2005 Pedro's lawyer Mike Luber told reporters this woman who is obviously a pathological this is a woman who is
obviously a pathological liar she has significant mental problems two of the psychiatrists have said she is mentally
imbalanced and she obvious L will say anything to do anything to avoid the music so to speak yeah she abandoned her
children to he said the one thing she hasn't said is the truth who the real conspirator is that's so weird isn't
that weird that's so weird and I just there's not enough information about the case to to point fingers and obviously
I'm not going to point fingers not going to speculate like I wish I could speculate on my own yeah but there's not
enough there's just not enough for her part Carolyn has always talked to her story and maintained her maintained her
innocence she said I feel it's unfair I raised her for six years and instead of saying I want my child back saying this
woman kidnapped my kid well I didn't I'm that's Carolyn who's saying it's unfair I raised her instead of
saying I want my child back saying this woman kid not my kid cuz she's saying they should have said like I want my kid
back cuz I gave it to I gave my kid to you voluntarily and now I want it back wow and she's like instead they're
saying I kidnapped this child or this kid this kid yeah uh instead she believes once Pedro learned that she had
lost her baby in December of 1997 he decided to hand his own child over to her I don't know about that according to
the Philadelphia Daily News her medical records actually show no sign of her having been pregnant at the time or
giving birth to a stillborn baby as she claims but she has stuck to that story when in all reality records indicate
that she actually had a tubal liation in 1990 wow so like I don't I don't know a lot
about that surgery I don't know if it's reversible but I know even when people do try to get like their tubes untied it
it depletes your chances of getting pregnant it can be reversed by another operation only about 50 to
80% of women are able to become pregnant after having their Fallopian tubes reattached that's what I figured like I
know some like a surgeries like that claim to be reversible but a lot of it's a lower chance it's a much lower chance
so who's to say yeah but in her version of events Carolyn went to the house that
day to give Pedro a ride to a friend's house to buy drugs she said meanwhile like they were like no she showed up
asking to for her breaks to be fixed but she said after she dropped him off she returned to loose at the house just
before the fire started once the fire started she helped loose get all the three other get all the other children
out of the house before returning to the friend's house to pick up Pedro and tell
him what happened but um that couldn't have been true because First Responders at the scene told Pedro what happened
when he got back yeah she alleged all the way back to the house he said it's my fault I cut the wires and the heater
and did something and when they got near the house she claims he asked her to drop him about a block away from the
house and a few minutes later he returned to the car and handed her the baby what so he got the baby out of the
fire that I'm like what do you that doesn't make any sense whatsoever no the fire started so you
drove him to his friend's house to quote unquote buy drugs then you went back to
luc's house and then the fire happened and nobody knew where the baby was and the baby was already missing from her
crib and then you left to go get Pedro and then Pedro said oh no that's my fault thank you for helping my family
out of the fire here's my baby who I found after the fire even though no firefighters could find ever heard what
anyway she continued I took her home laid down next to her and played played with her from then on she was mine and
no one questioned it uh except multiple people for six entire years what the [ __ ] no one questioned it baby what the
[ __ ] are you talking about it's documented that people have questioned it literally documented as the trial
neared Carolyn agreed to plead no contest to the charges and in late September 2005 she was sentenced to 9 to
30 years in prison for the abduction after the sentence was passed she addressed the court saying I truly
believe I need counseling your honor I want to apologize to the family and the court for all of this
confusion all of this confusion hey I'm glad you're saying you need counseling cuz like 10 out of 10 agree check out
better help uh confusion you talk to a therapist about calling that confusion cuz I don't know
about that yeah but in response judge uh judge Pamela Demi called Carolyn's remarks breathtakingly short of the
yeah and said and what I'm hearing in your voice still is an angry desire to put a lot of their responsibility on
someone else I can't imagine letting another parent believed that their child had been burned to death that's the
other thing it's like you didn't just kidnap this child and this child was like missing like they were just like
which would be devastating enough to think that somebody just kidnapped your child they were led to believe that she
burned to death in her crib to the point where there was literally nothing left nothing for them to do a memorial
nothing nothing and they also remember couldn't even have her legally declared dead so there was no headstone to visit
nothing nothing wow nothing in addition to the prison sentence the judge ordered
Caroline to serve a 5-year probation sentence and to never have contact with any of the victims ever again now the
process of restoring custody to of the child to her parents like we were saying earlier was a very slow and very
difficult one a court awarded shared custody to both loose and Pedro but it was agreed that her primary residence
would be with loose and for the sake of their daughter Pedro and loose maintain a c a cordial relationship good Pedro's
lawyer said this child already has a fragile psyche if we get into custody in visitation battles it's going to get
messy that was really good of them though to like put their own [ __ ] aside which like I imagine is hard to do
anyways in that scenario yeah absolutely it's like to make sure you're putting her in her wellbeing first absolutely
um finally while they always referred to their daughter as Delmar like I was saying earlier both loose and Pedro
agreed to continue calling the Girl Aaliyah so does not to disrupt or confuse her any further cuz remember she
was 6 years old when she was reunited with them like six years she's been Aaliyah in late March of 2004 less than
less than a month after Aaliyah was returned to them Luc and Pedro sold the rights to their story for um a movie and
a book to the Larry a Thompson organization a company known for producing made for TV movies and in 2008
if this entire thing has been sounding like a lifetime movie to you it became one it became one the Lifetime network
premiered little girl lost the Delmar Vera story and the family and Angel crw agreed it was an accurate and respectful
depiction of their story so that's great yeah in August 2006 both parents Pedra and loose filed a civil suit against the
city of Philadelphia including the Philadelphia Fire Department wow alleging that several City and law
enforcement officials had violated their quote Federal statutory right under the
national child search assistance Act of 1990 and their 14th Amendment right by failing to conduct a proper search for
Delmar I during and after the fire the court was sympathetic to the complaints lodged by loose and Pedro But ultimately
it dismissed the complaint writing after much analysis with and with considerable
appreciation for the professional skills of several of the council involved in this wrenching case that has no doubt
caused many heads to shake and wonder at its occurrence and many sympathetic Helping Hands to be extended to the
people involved for the reasons discussed below the Motions to dismiss the complaint will be granted so they
did so with sympathy which was nice yeah like they didn't just say like [ __ ] that
and I I I think it would have been like difficult to go through more to prove all of that so it's probably a good
thing exactly so you hope that now they're all just living peacefully and that my goodness hope everything is
going well for all of them and that they wake up on the right side of the bed every day I hope so I want all good
things for this family honestly cuz it's like you've been through enough that's the thing like damn absolutely Bonker
story and the I mean there's pictures of them now together and everything and they look so happy and adorable and that
makes you so happy that's awesome what a wild story though I was just looking for
true crime stories that weren't like uh you know like the typical kind of thing yeah and this one had a happy ending
that made me happy wow that's wow that was a wild story that I have not heard ofay czy never heard it before I started
looking up I think I think I literally wrote true crime stories with a happy ending yeah I love that because you're
just like I just want one I just needed one I would like one now so yeah that is
one of the craziest cases I think we've ever covered truly and I'm happy that it
had a happy ending for that family I hope you guys enjoyed it I hope they're thriving I hope they're thriving they
look like they are yeah they look so happy yeah and we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird
but not so weird that you ever kidnap a baby out of their crib and lie about it cuz don't listen to the show if you do
that don't and just don't do that don't do that bye [Music] [Music] [Music]

On December 15, 1997, ten-day-old Delimar Vera died in a tragic housefire when the Philadelphia home of Luz Cuevas and Pedro Vera caught fire unexpectedly. After a brief investigation, the fire department identified a faulty heater as the cause of the fire and deemed the baby’s death an accident and claimed that the girl’s remains had been completely destroyed in the blaze. Luz Cuevas was skeptical of their explanation and struggled to accept her daughter’s death.

Six years after the fire, Luz was at a party where she ran into Pedro’s cousin, whom she hadn’t seen in several years. The woman, Carolyn Correa, had with her a little girl named Aaliyah, whom she claimed was her daughter, though Luz didn’t remember her having children or being pregnant six years earlier. Even more suspicious was that six-year-old Aaliyah bore a striking resemblance to Luz herself and she couldn’t shake the feeling that Aaliyah was in fact her own supposedly dead daughter, Delimar.

Had Luz Cuevas been right all along? Had Delimar somehow managed to survive the fire? And if so, why was she now in the custody of a strange woman she hadn’t seen in six years?

Thank you to the incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research!

References Benson, Clea, and Rusty Pray. 1997. "10-day-old baby dies in N. Phila. fire." Philadelphia Inquirer, December 16: 38.

CBS News. 2004. New twist in baby ID case. March 9. Accessed June 28, 2024. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-twist-in-baby-id-case/.

CNN. 2004. Mom finds kidnapped daughter six years later. March 2. Accessed June 28, 2024. https://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Northeast/03/01/girl.found.alive/.

Cuevas v. City of Philadelphia. 2006. 05-3749 (United States District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania, August 11).

Egan, Nicole Weisensee. 2005. "Her side of the story." Philadelphia Daily News, October 13: 3.

Frisby, Mann. 1997. "Heater blamed in fire that clais infant." Philadelphia Daily News, December 16: 10.

George, Jason. 2004. "Girl found and woman held after a ruse lasting years." New York Times, March 3: A13.

Gregory, Sean. 2004. Back from the blaze. March 15. Accessed June 28, 2024. https://time.com/archive/6737931/back-from-the-blaze/.

Pompilio, Natalie. 2004. "Kidnapped girl returned to birth mother." Philadelphia Inquirer, March 8.

Pompilio, Natalie, and Joel Bewley. 2004. "Case of child once believed dead is far from over." Philadelphia Inquirer, March 6.

Pompilio, Natalie, and Thomas Gibbons. 2004. "Woman suspected of kidnapping girl 6 years ago turns." Philadelphia Inquirer, March 2.

Soteropoulos, Jacqueline. 2005. "Abductor of infant gets 9 to 30 years." Philadelphia Inquirer, September 24: 1.

Tampa Bay Times. 2004. Daughter lost in fire returns, but questions swirl in family. March 7. Accessed June 27, 2024. https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2004/03/07/daughter-lost-in-fire-returns-but-questions-swirl-in-family/.

The Record. 2004. DNA testing helps mom find only daughter. March 2. Accessed June 28, 2024. https://www.recordnet.com/story/news/2004/03/03/dna-testing-helps-mom-find/50702564007/.

Connect with Wondery http://wondery.com/shows http://facebook.com/WonderyMedia http://twitter.com/WonderyMedia http://instagram.com/WonderyMedia

Brief Summary

The episode covers the kidnapping of Delmar Vera and her eventual reunion with her mother after years of searching.

Key points

The Fire Incident. A fire breaks out in the Vera home, leading to the disappearance of baby Delmar.
Aaliyah's Revelation. Loose spots a girl resembling her daughter at a family party, igniting hope.
DNA Evidence. Loose cleverly obtains a hair sample from Aaliyah for DNA testing.
The Search for Aaliyah. Loose seeks help from the police to find her daughter, leading to DNA testing.
The Shocking DNA Results. DNA tests reveal that Carolyn's daughter is actually Delmar, not Aaliyah.
Carolyn's Arrest. Carolyn turns herself in after being on the run, facing serious charges.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I think that's pretty glaring evidence.

Discussing Pedro's refusal to sign the birth certificate.

4:16WatchAug 5, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from Morbid | Podcast

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.