A Canadian mother reunited with her son more than three decades after he was allegedly abducted by his father. Lyneth Mann-Lewis flew to the U.S. to see her now 33-year-old son last month, marking the first time that the two have been face-to-face since 1987.
“Words couldn’t express what I felt,” Mann-Lewis tearfully explained during a news conference Monday (Oct. 29). “The words ‘Your son is alive, we found him’ – that is breathtaking.”
Mann-Lewis’ former husband, Allan Mann Jr., is accused of abducting their 21-month-old son during a court ordered visit in Toronto. He allegedly used fake documents to flee the U.S. with the boy, whose name was changed to Jermaine Allan Mann. Jermaine grew up believing that his mother had died years earlier.
Mann, who is a 66-year-old dual citizen of Canada and Ghana, was apprehended at his home in Connecticut last Friday (Oct. 26). He had reportedly been living under the name Hailee Randolph DeSouza.
According to NBC News, authorities in the U.S. and Canada received more than 200 tips on the investigation over the years. In addition to kidnapping, Mann also stands accused of submitting fraudulent documents to obtain subsidized housing.
His next court date is scheduled for Nov. 9.
As for mother and son, the duo plan on building their relationship. Their first meeting was extremely emotional, as Mann-Lewis described to the press. “I grabbed him. I wanted squeeze his head, I wanted to see if he [was] real,” she recalled. “He said ‘Oh mommy, you have my eyes,’ and he hugged me and he kissed me.”
Jermaine was unable to attend the news conference because he had a test in school, his mother said.
See more on the reunion below.
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