Andrea Michelle Reyes was just shy of her second birthday when her father last saw her in Connecticut.
A girl who vanished just before her second birthday has been found more than 25 years later.
In October 1999, 23-month-old Andrea Michelle Reyes disappeared from her father’s home in New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
Later that year, a felony warrant for custodial interference was issued for Andrea’s non-custodial mother, Rosa Tenorio Andrea.
According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), the last known contact with Andrea was on October 5, 1999. Authorities believed she had been taken by her mother to Puebla, Mexico.
In addition to the initial felony warrant for custodial interference, another was reportedly issued for Tenorio in September 2009.
Despite multiple agencies, including the New Haven Police Department, investigating the case, Andrea and her mother were never located. She remained listed as a missing person in NamUs, according to a DNA Solves news release.
Over the years, multiple age-progression images of Andrea were generated to depict how she might look at different stages of her life. NamUs’ website featured five of these images, created between 2010, 2011, and 2014, but they yielded no leads.
Then, in 2023, the case was reinvestigated by the New Haven Police Department, leading to a major breakthrough—a woman came forward, believing she was Andrea, and reached out to her father.
To confirm her identity, the New Haven Police Department partnered with Othram, a forensic genetics company specializing in DNA extraction, sequencing, and genealogy, to conduct testing and verify the connection.
Police obtained a DNA sample from the woman and compared it to Andrea’s father’s DNA profile using KinSNP® Rapid Relationship Testing.
According to DNA Solves, “This comparison supported a father/daughter relationship, confirming that the woman who reached out is, in fact, the nearly two-year-old girl kidnapped in October 1999. Andrea Reyes, now 27 years old, resides in Mexico.”
It has not been publicly reported whether Rosa Tenorio Andrea has been located.
The case is part of a broader initiative known as Project 525, a collaboration between Othram and the RTI research institute, which oversees NamUs.
NamUs currently lists 525 juvenile cases, and Project 525 aims to bring resolution to each of them. Andrea’s case represents a promising step forward, marking the seventh case in Connecticut where this technology has successfully helped publicly identify an individual.
