The horrifying moment 14-year-old girl was torn away from her family in Mexico and sent to Texas woman who thought she was her daughter

  • Alondra Luna Nunez's case drew international attention after a video of her being forced into a police vehicle last week appeared online
  • There was no immediate explanation of why authorities did not confirm her identity before sending her out of the country
  • The Foreign Ministry said Mexican officials were carrying out a court order to send Alondra to Dorotea Garcia, a Houston woman 

By Michael Zennie For Daily Mail Online and Associated Press

Published: 10:45 EST, 22 April 2015 | Updated: 08:56 EST, 23 April 2015

This is the horrifying moment a 14-year-old Mexican girl was torn away from her family by federal police and sent to live with a Houston woman who mistakenly thought she was her long-lost daughter. 

Alondra Luna Nunez can be seen screaming and fighting with every ounce of her energy as she is dragged out of her school in front of her mother in Guanajuato in central Mexico last week. She pleaded with the officers, who were working for Interpol, not to take her from her parents.

Alondra is now back with her real family after a DNA test proved that she was not the daughter of Houston resident Dorotea Garcia.

'They stole my daughter,' her real mother, Susana Nunez, raged to Milenio Television on Wednesday. 'I didn't know this woman existed.' 

Taken: Alondra Luna Nunez's case drew international attention after a video of her being forced into a police vehicle last week appeared online

Alondra used every ounce of her energy to fight Mexican federal police officers, who were working for Interpol on the orders of a Texas judge.

Alondra used every ounce of her energy to fight Mexican federal police officers, who were working for Interpol on the orders of a Texas judge.

Garcia says she found Alondra after she traveled to Mexico in search of her daughter who was illegally taken from Texas by her father in 2007 at age four.

Garcia convinced authorities that Alondra was her daughter, despite her family's pleas and the fact that they produced a birth certificate, baptismal documents and family photographs of Alondra as a small child.

Alondra was torn away from her parents and little brother by police who were acting on the orders of a judge from Texas. 

She was taken to the neighboring state of Michoacan for a hearing on April 12. A judge there ignored her family's pleas - and the evidence - that Alondra belonged to them and not Garcia from Texas.

In the end, the Mexican judge ruled in Garcia's favor based on a car on the bridge of Alondra's nose. Garcia claimed her daughter had a scar above her eyebrow.  

Back home: Alondra Luna Nunez smiles at a press conference on Wednesday after she was returned to her parents in Guanajuato, Mexico

Back home: Alondra Luna Nunez smiles at a press conference on Wednesday after she was returned to her parents in Guanajuato, Mexico

Alondra is seen with her father, little brother and mother after she was reunited with her family when a DNA test proved she was not the daughter of the Houston woman who claimed her

Alondra is seen with her father, little brother and mother after she was reunited with her family when a DNA test proved she was not the daughter of the Houston woman who claimed her

Dorotea Garcia (pictured) believed that Alondra Nunez was her long-lost daughter Alondra, who was taken to Mexico by her father in 2007

Dorotea Garcia (pictured) believed that Alondra Nunez was her long-lost daughter Alondra, who was taken to Mexico by her father in 2007

The girl and Garcia went by bus to Houston, where Alondra later recorded a video, posted to social media, in which she looked calm and happy and told her parents in Mexico not to worry as they waited for results of a DNA test there.

'I'm fine. I see that the United States is nice,' she said, adding, 'I don't understand anything they're saying, because everything is in English.'

On Wednesday, after being returned to her parents, Alondra spoke to reporters in her hometown of Guanajuato and said she was happy to be home. She said the video recorded in Houston was intended to assure her parents she was OK, even though she really wasn't.

'She took me from my parents,' Alondra said. 'I didn't know her or Mr. Reynaldo,' she added, referring to the father of Garcia's missing daughter.

The Foreign Ministry said Mexican officials were carrying out a court order to send Alondra to Dorotea Garcia, a Houston woman. Garcia claimed the girl was her daughter who had been illegally taken to Mexico by her father

The Foreign Ministry said Mexican officials were carrying out a court order to send Alondra to Dorotea Garcia, a Houston woman. Garcia claimed the girl was her daughter who had been illegally taken to Mexico by her father

Similarities? Dorotea never stopped looking for her daughter Alondra Diaz Garcia - seen here before she was taken as (right) in a digitally aged picture

Similarities? Dorotea never stopped looking for her daughter Alondra Diaz Garcia - seen here before she was taken as (right) in a digitally aged picture

A judge ignored her parents' pleas and put Alondra on a bus to Houston, Texas, with Dorotea Garcia last week

A judge ignored her parents' pleas and put Alondra on a bus to Houston, Texas, with Dorotea Garcia last week

It was unclear how the girl came to be identified as Garcia's daughter.

In 2007, the Foreign Ministry received a claim stating that Garcia's then 4-year-old daughter, Alondra Diaz Garcia, had been taken by her father from the U.S. and was believed to be in Michoacan. This year, Garcia went to Mexico and said she had found her daughter in Guanajuato, prompting U.S. authorities to seek the help of Interpol in retrieving her.

Meanwhile, Alondra Diaz Garcia remains missing. Reynaldo Diaz is suspected of abducting her from Houston in 2007, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. A U.S. felony warrant has been issued for his arrest.

Alondra Luna's uncle, Ruben Nunez, said that she returned in good condition and that the family is sure to seek some kind of legal damages.

'In whatever form, they will try to sue whoever is found to be responsible,' Nunez told reporters in the airport in Leon, Mexico, after the girl's arrival. 'It's not right what they did - take the girl just because they could.'

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