Religious Sect Had Children from 2008 Mass Disappearance Mexican Authorities Say Agence France-Presse
go to original April 11, 2014

Mexican authorities confirmed this week that members of a tiny, mysterious evangelical sect had taken and kept about a dozen children who vanished from a Mexico City children's shelter in 2008.

Prosecutors announced this week that three more of the children had been found, bringing to 12 the number of kids located out of a total of 15 who went missing from the Casitas del Sur shelter.

A federal official says the three newly found people showed up last week at prosecutors' offices in Puebla state, not far from Mexico City. They identified themselves as children taken from the shelter, though two are now adults.

Like many of the other recovered children, they had been given in a sort of illegal adoption to church members. Many of the youths have expressed desires to see their real families, according to the official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name.

The Attorney General's Office said members of the religious group known as The Restored Christian Church ran the shelter, and had given the children to members of the congregation to raise.

The shelter, whose name translates as "Little Houses of the South" because it was located in southern Mexico City, was used by child welfare authorities to house children from broken families or whose parents were temporarily unable to care for them.

By the time some relatives asked for their children back, they had disappeared. The shelter was raided by police in 2008 and dozens of children were removed from it, but some remained missing. The church has previously denied any involvement in the disappearances, but its leaders could not be located for comment on Tuesday.

Read the rest at emirates247.com

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