Did missing Alabama boy turn to Reddit for help?

Julian Hernandez was found in Cleveland, Ohio, this week 13 years after being abducted from his mother and his home in Vestavia Hills, Ala.

A month before the missing person case was resolved, however, Julian may have turned to Reddit for help after finding out he may be a missing person unknowingly using a false identity.

The post titled “When I was a child, my father kidnapped me without me knowing” was submitted to subreddit r/legaladvice by a person called Throwaway0805049.

Throwaway0805049 has since deleted the post and admitted on a separate thread that he was, in fact, Julian Hernandez.

“Yes this is me,” Throwaway0805049 said in response to a comment mentioning Julian Hernandez. “So I've (deleted) that post and the comments that followed it. It doesn't matter though since it’s already been seen.”

Although Throwaway0805049 has identified himself as Julian, Julian hasn’t identified himself as Throwaway0805049. For journalistic purposes, this reporter will refer to Throwaway0805049 as OP (original poster) for the remainder of this article and until verified by Julian.

If OP is Julian, however, there may not be additional comment for a while.

“I don't want to do any public speaking at the moment, yet news agencies showed up at my school today and I had to be driven home by cops, where we found more news people waiting,” OP said in the Reddit comment. “I also want to say that some of the things news agencies have been saying are incorrect. I'll set the record straight when I sort out the rest of my life. I'm commenting this here because I don't know where else to say it.”

The stories of OP and Julian are undeniably similar – if not the same – and assuming OP is actually Julian, his post provides a first-person view of a teenager realizing the past 13 years of his life have been a lie.

First, background.

Julian is now 18 years old and was 5 years old when he was abducted by his father Bobby Hernandez.

While living with his father, Julian had no idea he was a missing person, and numerous media reports describe Julian finding out that his identity was a fraud when he tried to apply to colleges this year.

WVTM-TV in Birmingham said Julian went to a school counselor after his Social Security number couldn’t be verified and subsequently found himself listed on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) database. Julian was abducted by his father Bobby Hernandez in August 2002 when Julian was 5 years old. Julian is now 18

In the Reddit post written a month before Julian was discovered, OP describes “finding my page on a missing child database” and asks Reddit for advice about getting his school record corrected.

“Sometime between the ages of 3 and 5, my dad took me, against a court order, away from my mother without me even knowing this,” reads the opening post. “He changed my name and SSN and did something similar for himself. I have lived my entire life up until a few days ago oblivious to this fact (I was told the name people had been calling me when I was young was my current middle name.) I only discovered all this as I was applying for scholarships and my dad was unable to provide tax info because of all the fraud(?) and he explained everything to me. I learned yesterday after finding my page on a missing child database that I am actually 18 (my fake records say I'm 17).”

The ages match as do details of the false Social Security number. In addition, both Julian and the OP reportedly find themselves in the missing child database. The OP’s guess as to where his mother is also pretty close.

“My mother is likely either living in Florida or Alabama, judging by my page on the missing children database,” OP said.

The OP said that he confronted his father about the situation, but also said he’s not angry at his father.

If OP is actually Julian, it’s a rare and honest insight into the life of somebody who was abducted but never knew they were missing.

“I'm not angry at my father in the slightest,” the post reads. “I remember that he used to ask me ‘If I ever committed a terrible crime, would you still love me?’ I still do, even after learning everything. My father has done his best to deal with the mistakes he has made and he clearly regrets them. He has raised me well. I wouldn't have done so well in school without his pressure, and I am perfectly clean and sober, without any criminal records. I know my father has dug himself a deep hole with over a decade of fraud and tax evasion. I want to know how I can resolve these problems in the quickest, least painful way possible.”

It’s highly likely that OP and Julian are one in the same. Both were kidnapped around the same time by a dad who provided fake Social Security information. Both found themselves in a missing children database while applying for college, and the OP mentions his father committing “over a decade of fraud” which matches the 13 years Bobby Hernandez had Julian.

Julian’s mother’s family released a statement Thursday asking for privacy. If OP is actually Julian, the Reddit post that has since been deleted gives stark detail to an otherwise mysterious case.

“I do remember some things about my mother,” the OP said. “I remember she was still young at the time, probably early 20's. See, my mom and dad had a deal that if they broke up, my dad would take me, but when they did, and we were driving out of town somewhere else, my dad got a call from a judge ordering him to return me to my mother, and that was when he decided to run away. I remember that moment so well, but I never knew who he was talking to or why until recently.”