Bejohna Peres disappeared from Houston, Texas in 2007. She was three years old at the time and is believed to have been abducted by her non-custodial mother. Well, Bejohna may have been found in Ontario, Canada. According to this article (which misspells the child’s name as “Brejohna”), police have taken a little girl into protective custody and are trying to determine whether she is Bejohna. The little girl was in the care of Carol Ann Cozzi, who says she’s the child’s mother and her name is Briana. She gave the police a birth certificate to support her claims. There doesn’t seem to be any doubt about Cozzi’s identity. If the girl is Bejohna, how did she end up with Cozzi and where is her mother? This would not be the first time a parent abducted their child only to foist it on someone else.
The article contains additional info about Bejohna’s disappearance. She and her three siblings were in the care of their grandmother when their mother took all four of them. The three other children were found safe in Las Vegas, Nevada in November 2007, but Bejohna and her mother have yet to be located.
It’s not really clear why the police think Briana is Bejohna. I really hope she is. Otherwise, a mother and child have been separated needlessly and probably traumatized by the experience.
July 15, 2009 at 12:13 pm |
What a weird article. When you said Cozzi was insisting she was her mother, I didn’t realise that she’d provided birth certificates etc. Either a terrible mistake or Cozzi is a total nutjob.
July 15, 2009 at 12:45 pm |
I hope this is resolved quickly one way or another, for the little girl’s sake.
July 15, 2009 at 2:42 pm |
Could be a fake birth certificate. The scary thing is if Briana is NOT the missing girl. The fact that your child can be taken away from all she knows because the authorites “suspect” she is someone else kind of freaks me out. Seems like they would detain the mother and child together to avoid any trauma.
July 15, 2009 at 6:50 pm |
Article from yesterday out of Hamilton, which has a 2008 picture of Brianna – still a hard call, though.
http://thespec.com/News/Local/article/599465
July 15, 2009 at 7:01 pm |
Just noticed the old Hamilton article also had a 2008 photo of Brianna – and here I thought I was being smart. Rats.
July 15, 2009 at 9:16 pm |
Anyone know any details of the other 3 kids that were found in Vegas? Were exactly were they found? who where they with? what did they have to say about their mother?
The only thing I hate about these missing people websites is the lack of detailed information.
July 16, 2009 at 2:39 am |
Anyone found the girl’s mother’s full name and a photo of her? Why are they so sure this Cozzi lady isn’t her under an alias?
I have to say I won’t be convinced this is Bejohna until I hear the DNA results – I wish they would hurry up. Not to be funny, but the Maury Povich show can get the DNA results in like 20 minutes – why can’t they speed this up so the girl can either be reunited with her siblings or returned to Cozzi? It’s frustrating to have it take so long.
August 20, 2009 at 3:19 am |
Carol Ann…I CAN’T believe what you had to go through…I was in tears…how is your little girl doing? What a horrible experience for you both…I’ve been trying to find you. I think I found your address in Suffolk…are you on Facebook?…J. Monteal says hi…I wish I could talk to you…it’s been a loooong time.