Fujian prison helps inmate find birth mother after 30 years

A prisoner with a reprieved death penalty sentence who was abducted 30 years ago, found his birth mother with the help of prison officers on December 12, 2017, in Longyan, Fujian Province, Beijing News reported.

A doctor tells the prisoner the DNA results on December 12, 2017. [Photo provided by Fujian Bureau of Prisons]

On November 28, prison officers at Longyan Prison received a letter from a prisoner, who had been sentenced to death with a two-year suspension. The prisoner said that in his dreams he kept remembering being abducted as a child and that he missed his birth parents and wanted to see them while he was still alive.

Haunted by his dreams, the prisoner was not progressing in his rehabilitation. The prison designated officer Chen Linlin to begin early investigations, but he failed to find any clues as to what happened all those years ago.

The official WeChat account of China's Ministry of Justice published an article calling for concerted efforts from the whole of society to find the prisoner's family. This action was followed by web portals fjsf.gov.cn and fjjyj.gov.cn.

Two days later, after over 200 tips had been received, a breakfast vendor called the Fujian Bureau of Prisons, suggesting that the prisoner might be her long-lost brother. The bureau and Longyan Prison immediately started DNA identification by testing blood samples from the prisoner and the vendor's mother on December 1.

A matching result proved that the prisoner was the woman's child, and he was allowed to meet his family at the prison on December 14.