Teen Fills Out College Applications Only To Realize He's Been A 'Missing Person' For 13 Years

May 15, 2019 by apost team

Applying for college is a right of passage that many young adults go through. Typically, the biggest surprise is getting rejected by a school you considered a slam dunk or perhaps getting accepted to a school that you considered out of reach.

One teen in Ohio found something much more surprising when he began filling out his college applications. The boy noticed that his social security number seemed to be incorrect. It didn't match his name.

He wasn't sure how to proceed so he contacted a school counselor for help. The counselor discovered something shocking: the boy was listed in the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children database. He'd been kidnapped.

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CNN reports that in 2002, the boy lived with his mother in Alabama. His name then was Julian Hernandez. One day, his father decided to leave and take Julian with him. He left a note behind for Julian's mother, took the young boy, and vanished.

The man created a false identity for himself and changed Julian's name. The two spent more than a decade living in Ohio.

No one ever suspected that Julian was a missing child. Julian himself had no idea.

Julian's mother kept believing that her son would be found one day. When she found out that Julian was alive and healthy, she was overcome with happiness and relief.

Julian's father was arrested, but the young man couldn't stay angry with him. He asked the judge for leniency. He claimed that living without his mother had been terrible, but that taking his father away would be just as bad, reported CBS News.

Julian asked that his father receive no jail time, but the judge didn't agree. She sentenced Julian's father to four years in prison, a much lighter term than he could have received.

Watch the story in the video below:

Would you have been as forgiving in Julian's place? Do you think the judge did the right thing by giving Julian's dad a light sentence? Tell us your thoughts and don't forget to show this story to your friends to talk about it.