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According to USA Today, on September 26, 2015, an anonymous post appeared on Reddit, a public
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online forum where people post anything they want according to their interests, sort of
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like an online meetup community. According to the Reddit thread, someone commented on the following,
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quote, sometime between the ages of three and five, my father took me against a court order away from
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my mother without me ever knowing this. He changed my name, my social security number, and did
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something similar for himself. I have lived my entire life up until a few days ago oblivious
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to this fact. I only discovered all of this when I was applying for scholarships. I'm not angry at
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my father in the slightest. I remember he used to ask me, if I ever committed a terrible crime,
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would you still love me? I still do, even after learning everything, unquote. Welcome everyone to
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Dying to be Found the Dash. I'm your host Deb, and this is a story of Julian Hernandez, a five-year-old
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boy who was abducted by his father in 2002 from Birmingham, Alabama. Hi everyone, this is Deb from
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Dying to be Found. Before we get started, I just wanted to say that episodes contain disturbing
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discussions on harmful acts and crimes against animals and or humankind. Recordings are not
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intended for young or sensitive audiences due to the content nature of this podcast. Listener
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discretion is strongly advised. Hi everyone, thanks for hanging in here with Dying to be Found
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the Dash, where every week I'll bring you bonus episodes like today or talk with fellow True Crime
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podcasters and enthusiasts. Just look for the Dying to be Found logo. Once you find me, you'll
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get to hear me and my kiddos Shelby and Corey or my sister Beth tell a tale to every week. If you're
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looking for shorter stories and just me telling a tale or looking for just some cross collaborations
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with other podcasters, be sure to check out The Dash. If you could rate and share, that really does
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help as far as visibility out there in the podcast world. So definitely give it a go. I appreciate it,
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but let me get into my storyline today. This Reddit post that I spoke about at the beginning of this
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episode, there's speculation that the author is indeed Julian Hernandez, although the circumstances
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are without question extremely similar to this case. Someone had commented on that post that I
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had mentioned in the introduction and the person talking about being abducted responded to that
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post by telling them that his father had told him that if his parents ever broke up, his dad would
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just take him away. However, the courts felt otherwise and ordered custody to the mum. So what's
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this case all about? It's about a little boy who did not find out his true identity until he
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consciously went through his formative years making good grades, scoring well on his ACT's,
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and trying to earn scholarships to pay for college. This boy was named Julian Hernandez and it sounds
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like he was doing everything right plus he had a pretty good upbringing. On another note, it seems
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that Julian discovered his own past simply by needing to supply his social security number
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when applying to those colleges. As it turns out, Julian ran into a few roadblocks turning in those
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applications because he received messages that his social security number could not be verified.
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Julian went to visit his school counselor for assistance and imagine his surprise when after
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a little bit of digging, they discovered that Julian was registered with the National Center
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for Missing and Exploited Children Database. Obviously, Julian's father was promptly arrested.
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Bobby Hernandez, age 53, was charged with tampering with official records and providing
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false information on June 12, 2015. He was held on a $250,000 bond and because he was currently
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living in Cleveland, Ohio, he was scheduled to face charges 650 miles or 1046 kilometers away
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in Alabama. Bobby was also charged with interference of custody which could amount to
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between one and 10 years in prison if convicted. When Julian was first reported missing in 2002,
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he had left a note for Julian's mom that he had taken Julian fishing. Of course, Julian was not
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returned that evening and when that happened, Julian's mother contacted police and a warrant
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was issued as a non-custodial parental abduction, which is a felony offense in relation to
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interference with child custody. According to ABC News, the child custody interference charges
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applied from the time that Julian
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was taken at the age of five until his 18th birthday.
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Court records indicated that Bobby had falsified identification information to obtain a fictitious
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ID in Ohio. Whether this was for himself or for Julian is not quite clear. However, authorities
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from the state of Ohio believe that Bobby may have applied for an identification card under the name
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of a deceased individual. So here's how it played out. On April 28, 2002, Bobby Hernandez, Julian's
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dad, was not married to Julian's mom. At some point, they had broken up so eventually resided
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in separate homes. The couple was apparently on enough speaking terms together because Bobby made
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arrangements with Julian's mom to take Julian to preschool. That never happened. Instead, Bobby picked
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Julian up at the designated time and went to run errands instead. He went to the bank, withdrew some
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cash, and simply left the area. When Bobby failed to show up that evening to return Julian back home,
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his mom did call the police to file that missing person's report. Over the next 13 years, many
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leads came in, but Bobby and Julian had vanished without a trace. Authorities released information
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on Julian's disappearance and received numerous leads all the way from Florida to Canada. Of course,
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nothing came to fruition from these leads, but eyewitnesses after the fact said that Bobby was
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a soft-spoken man who lived under an alias name of Jonathan Mangina. He loved his son, whom he called
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Jay or JJ, and did his best to always provide for him. It wasn't until 2015 that Julian began applying
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to colleges and his social security number came into question. This is when his high school counselor
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helped him fill in the missing pieces of his true identity, whether they realized it or not. So where
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does Julian go from here? In 2016, 19-year-old Julian Hernandez made a public statement to an
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Ohio courts judge that he forgave his father Bobby Hernandez for kidnapping him and raising him on his
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own. Julian even said, quote, even if people can't, I forgive him for what he's done. I love him and I
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want him to be part of my life. Unquote. Julian went on to advocate for his father and asked the
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judge to give mercy on Bobby and keep him from going to prison for this kidnapping. Julian's
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argument was that throughout his life, Bobby had pushed him to be a good student, to do right,
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and to focus on his future with plans to go to college. Well, let's not forget about Bobby
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Hernandez here. He was that soft-spoken man and apologized to the court for taking his son from
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Julian's mother. He went on to explain to the court why he had abducted his own son and ended
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up in Ohio. Bobby told the judge that Julian was the most important person in his life. The prosecutor
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felt otherwise. The Cuyahoga County prosecutor argued that Bobby was a con man and stated that
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kidnapping Julian was a horrible thing to do to any parent. One of Julian's grandparents later came
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forward to testify that Bobby was angry, controlling, and vengeful and deliberately punished Julian's
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mom by kidnapping Julian because she had left him. Bobby went on to be indicted for kidnapping,
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interference with custody, forgery, and tampering with records on November 14, 2015. According to
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WVTM 13 television, the tampering and forgery charges were issued when Bobby falsified Julian's
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records, which included his birth certificate necessary to enroll Julian in public school.
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These charges were also related to Bobby when he obtained an Ohio driver's license and the title
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to his vehicle. Bobby went on to plead guilty to two counts of kidnapping, two counts of interference
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to custody, one count of forgery, and ten counts of tampering with records. On April 13, 2016, Bobby
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was sentenced to four years behind bars in the Ohio prison system and was released on parole for
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an additional five years. That would bring us up to today where Bobby has a few more years to serve
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on parole. To this day, Julian stands behind his dad and his actions, inferring that he was a good
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provider and a good dad who pushed him to succeed in life. Okay, where's Julian's mom in all of this?
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Personally, I'm a mother and if you've listened to Dying to be Found enough, you know that I lost
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my son Cory for 15 minutes of my life while we were out camping and he was three years old.
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Longer if you count the minutes it took me to discover that he was gone. The moment of
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realization that your child is missing is absolutely excruciating. And that was only for 15 minutes
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until I
was able to find Cory at another campsite safe and sound about half a mile away. Although
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this is nothing in comparison to losing a child, let alone for 13 years, I personally understand
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for a split second what it's like for a child to go missing. Thankfully, Julian's mom got the same
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results as me only it took a lot longer. So my heart goes out to her and I am truly joyful that
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she was able to find her missing child. Julian's mom was notified that he was found safe and sound.
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She realizes that Julian was a grown man when he discovered his true identity and left it up to him
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on if they would reunite. So where is Julian Hernandez now? I did my best to find updates
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on his whereabouts but was unsuccessful. However, back in 2015 when the story made headlines,
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Julian was 18 years old and basically told the media that he wanted to be left alone.
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According to Cleveland 19 News, this is what he said. And to be honest, there's little information
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on Julian's whereabouts today other than to say he's living his best life. Quote, I would like to
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take this opportunity to make a request to the media. I ask that you respect my privacy and the
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privacy of my school, my school's faculty, my friends, and my neighbors. I want to go through
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my day like I did this week, just being a normal 18 year old. Unquote. So here's some closing thoughts
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to sum things up. It's apparent that Julian holds a strong bond with his dad. According to Global News,
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Julian is quoted by saying, I think my dad has done a lot of good in our time here in Cleveland.
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He's raised me well, in my opinion, a lot better than any other parent I've seen. He's pushed me
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far in school. And he's the reason why I get some of the best grades in school and why I'm going to
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college. Unquote. Julian goes on to say that the time he spent with his dad is the only time he
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truly felt at home and at peace because of how much hard work he put into everything. So that's the
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story of Julian Hernandez, the five-year-old boy from Alabama that discovered his own identity.
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Please let me know what you have to say about this episode by emailing me at dying the number two,
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send you more information on how to get on future episodes. Thanks to everyone who has emailed,
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shared, or commented on the dash. I continue to be amazed with your support. So thanks so much everyone
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and talk to you soon. Thanks for listening to Dying to be Found, True Crime podcast and our dash mini
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series. Every week we'll bring you a variety of true crime episodes, a little dash of hope,
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