After searching for decades, family reunites with daughter who went missing 24 years ago

He never stopped trying to find his daughter, and after 24 years of searching, Wang Mingqing was finally reunited with Kang Ying.

In January 1994, Wang and his wife, Liu Chengying, brought their toddler daughter, Qifeng, to the fruit stall they operated in Chengdu, China. They briefly took their eyes off of the 3-year-old, and she disappeared into the sea of people. The parents tried everything to find her, including putting out ads in newspapers, but her whereabouts remained a mystery.

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Kang contacted Wang on social media, and on Sunday, a DNA test confirmed she was Qifeng. It turns out she grew up just 12 miles away from her birth parents. Now married with two children, she brought the kids with her on Tuesday when she met with the family that never gave up hope of seeing her again. "From now on, Dad is here," Wang told her. "You don't need to worry about anything — Dad will help you." Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.