Kidnapped Latvian boy found 16 years after disappearance

A 16-year-old Latvian boy who was kidnapped at six weeks old has been placed in foster care and could soon be reunited with his mother.

A woman who brought up the boy in Daugavpils, near the border with Belarus, was arrested in a separate case and questions arose about the boy's identity. He had no birth certificate or personal ID code - obligatory in Latvia - which prompted investigators to reopen the kidnapping case, which had been closed because of a lack of leads.

In 1992 the boy's mother had gone shopping and left her child in a pram outside a shop. When she came out, child and pram had vanished.

A DNA test confirmed the identity of the teenager. The woman who brought him up denied kidnapping him and told police that her husband, who died several years ago, had brought him home, claiming that he came from Dagestan, in Russia.

Authorities placed the boy with a foster family pending a custody hearing that will determine if he can live with his biological mother, who also lives in Daugavpils.

The Ministry for Children and Family Affairs said the court would weigh all factors — including the teenage boy's wishes — in deciding where he should live until he turns 18.