Parents cry for joy as they find missing son after 24 years

A couple were finally re-united with their son following his disappearance 24 years ago. Pictures showed dad Li Shunji and mum Du Li embracing Li Lei, 27, after managing to track him down using a police DNA database.
Li Shunji reportedly said to his son: ‘We’ve finally found you! ‘We’d been searching for 24 years.’ He had disappeared in Xi’an, capital of north-western China’s Shaanxi Province, on 8th August 1994, after he got lost in a crowd. The three-year-old had followed his dad to the shops without him knowing.

‘I only realised that he had gone missing after my wife came looking for me at the shop. My legs went numb instantly,’ Mr Li told Chinese Business Gazette. His parents feared he had been kidnapped but have since discovered a couple found him wandering around on his own and took him in because they thought he was an orphan. Li and Du had never given up hope of finding their son even after they had twin children later on.
The breakthrough came when Li, who also goes by the name Lei Lei, provided blood samples to the authorities through missing-persons NGO Baobei Huijia (Baby Back Home) in hopes of being reunited with his parents. His biological parents did the same in 2017, and a match was eventually found. The identities of Lei Lei’s foster parents has not been revealed and it’s not clear if they will be in legal trouble for not handing him in.