Facebook Post Leads Mom to 5-Year-Old Son Not Seen in Years

June 18, 2010 — -- A Texas mother who had not seen her son in more than four years is crediting Facebook for helping to reunite her with her child.

Lorena Perez had last seen her son, Isaiah Jeremiah Vaquear, in 2006 when the boy's father Joseph Vaquera took him without her permission from the family's San Antonio home.

It wasn't until earlier this month, when a woman who had once dated the child's father spotted a photo of Isaiah on a Facebook page for missing children.

The woman alerted alerted police who reunited Perez and Isaiah, authorities said.

"I was crying, happy tears," said Perez to ABC News' Houston affiliate KTRK. "He gave me a hug and he says, 'Mommy, I want a happy meal.'"

The Harris County District Attorney's Office released a statement announcing the reunion, saying that Perez was never able to press charges against the father because no custody orders were ever put in place.

But the child's paternal grandmother, 54-year-old Isabel Vaquera, has been charged with kidnapping and tampering with governmental records after she refused to return the child and for falsifying his birth certificate to enroll him in school, according to the district attorney's office.

If convicted, Vaquera could face up to 20 years in prison.

"Children should not be used as pawns in domestic disputes," said the district attorney's Family Criminal Law Division Chief Jane Waters.

This is the second time in a month that Facebook has played a roll in locating missing children.

In May, Florida authorities arrested Faustino Fernandez Utrera, 42, and charged him with kidnapping and child custody after he allegedly took his two children away from mom Prince Sagala more than 15 years ago.

Sagala located her daughter by typing the teenager's name into Facebook and corresponding with her. Authorities were eventually able to track the girl and her brother, ages 16 and 17, in Florida.