Mexico US Girl Seized

Alondra Diaz arrives for a court hearing Tuesday, May 12, 2015, in Los Reyes, Mexico. A Mexican judge waited for DNA results before ordering the teen be returned to her mother in Houston. The search for the 13-year-old attracted wide attention last month after another teen named Alondra was turned over to the Texas woman in a case of mistaken identity. (Miguel Garcia Tinoco via AP)

(The Associated Press )

MEXICO CITY -- A Mexican judge returned a long-missing teenager to her U.S. mother Friday, ending the woman's eight-year search and a cross-border custody case in which another girl was mistakenly sent to Texas against her will.

Alondra Diaz, 13, and Houston resident Dorotea Garcia left a courthouse together following the afternoon ruling in Los Reyes, a town in the southwestern state of Michoacan, after DNA tests confirmed her identity.

They were under heavy police guard and did not comment publicly, but Judge Cinthia Elodia Mercado called the case closed.

"The recovery of a minor by an applicant mother has happened," Mercado said. "This is over."

Alondra Diaz was taken to Mexico in 2007 by her father, Reynaldo Diaz, without her mother's consent, and her whereabouts had not been known until recently. Garcia has indicated that she would drop legal complaints against the father if she got custody.

Alondra Luna had been picked up by police and sent screaming to the U.S. last month, then returned to Mexico.

The case gained international attention last month after Mercado erroneously ruled that 14-year-old Alondra Luna was the missing girl and ordered her turned over to Garcia.

Video recordings circulated widely of Alondra Luna screaming and desperately resisting as police dragged her away. DNA testing performed after the girl was taken to the United States showed she was not Garcia's daughter, and she returned to her real family in Guanajuato.

With a media spotlight now on the case, Reynaldo Diaz delivered the real Alondra Diaz to family members who then presented her to authorities, saying she was prepared to go live with her mother.

Garcia had an emotional reunion with her daughter this week in a courtroom in Los Reyes.

In the case of the first girl, the judge denied requests by her and her family for DNA tests, saying it was not within her authority. This time Mercado waited for DNA confirmation.

The difference in treatment prompted Alondra Luna and her parents to travel to Los Reyes to stake out the courthouse Friday and demand an apology.

"We have been here since 9 a.m. and the judge does not want to see us, nor will she open the door, and she says that if we remain here she will call police to remove us," said Susana Nunez, the girl's mother. "We want to make it clear that my girl's rights were trampled."

Nunez said the family intended to file formal complaints next week but wanted to meet face-to-face with Mercado first to express their displeasure.

"I see this as a kidnapping that was ordered by the judge," the girl's father, Gustavo Luna, said.

-- The Associated Press