(dpa) - A DNA test confirmed that a Latvian woman's infant son, who was stolen from a supermarket 16 years ago, and a 16-year- old boy without identity documents are one and the same person, local media reported on Wednesday.
A family court in a city of Daugavpils ordered the DNA test after the woman who raised the boy was jailed last week.
Court officials grew suspicious about inconsistencies in the woman's story, remembered the child missing since 1992 and found the mother, identified in media reports only as Irina. She and the boy separately agreed to DNA tests.
The teen will have to decide with whom he wants to live - with the woman who raised him, but who is now in jail, or with his biological mother, whom he had never met.
Psychologists have been working with Irina and the teen ahead of their reunion.
The news captivated the city of more than 100,000 people the same way as 16 years ago when someone stole the stroller with Irina's son from the supermarket foyer. Only the stroller was eventually found.
The woman who raised the boy said her now-deceased husband brought the baby home from Russia's southern republic of Dagestan in 1992. She gave him a name and he bore her last name.
The court indicated the woman did not have any children of her own, local media reported.
During the custody hearing last week, it emerged that the 16-year- old - who is due to graduate from high school this year - attended schools, visited doctors and lived a normal life without a legal identity.