"The missing boy has been found": Baby Vinh reunited with grandmother
Missing baby Hoang Vinh Le has been reunited with his grandmother after a gruelling 16 months of being hidden from authorities.
"The missing boy has been found," grandmother Kim Huong Tran said as she showed off Vinh to A Current Affair cameras.
"Finally I got him back."
Vinh was being kept away from his grandmother as a bitter custody dispute played out for more than a year.
However, Kim said her sleepless nights and tears were worth the moment her and Vinh reunited.
At only two-years-old, Vinh's first few years have been complicated by the behaviour of his parents.
Kim helped raise Vinh herself when the couple split shortly after he was born in June 2020.
When his parents later decided to reconcile, they wanted to leave Vinh in Kim's care, until they changed their mind about their son when he was nine-months-old.
The couple got a court order for Vinh to live with his father Thanh, but due to his history of violence, Kim didn't want to hand baby Vinh over.
Not taking no for an answer, Thanh snatched baby Vinh from a doctor's waiting room in April 2021.
"I've got the order from the federal court saying that the child's to live with me until 18, or else I wouldn't be snatching the kid off," Thanh told police at the time.
A judge then ordered the parents to give Vinh back, but they refused.
The last time Vinh was seen alive was in May 2021, in photos Thanh posted on Facebook.
Thanh's Facebook post said: "Just informing everyone that myself and my partner and our son Hoang Vinh Le is safe and all living happy together there for (sic) we are not missing. So I don't know why we are listed as missing people LOL."
After not hearing any updated on Vinh for several months, on September 25th Kim was notified by police they had found her grandson.
Vinh had been abandoned at a childcare centre in Campsie, in Sydney's south-west.
NSW Police Detective Inspector Timothy Liddiard led the investigation to find Vinh for a year and a half.
"Oh look, it's an extremely unique case. Certainly it's not one I've been involved in previously, of this complexity," Liddiard said.
After a paternity test confirmed Vinh's identity and an emergency court sitting granted Kim custody, she was finally allowed to bring him home.
Kim said she was still in shock and added the only reason Vinh was found was because whoever was looking after him had given him up.
"So good to have him back finally, thank you everyone," Kim said.
Image credits: A Current Affair