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FaceApp-style tech helps family to reunite with their missing child after 18 years
Though Yu Weifeng’s kidnapping case was initially closed after a few years, the investigators in Shenzhen’s Futian District again reopened it.
A 21-year-old Chinese man has been reunited with his biological family after almost two decades when police decided to use FaceApp-style technology to predict his present appearance. The man, Yu Weifeng, was abducted 18 years ago in 2001 from a construction site where his biological father used to work as a foreman, reports Metro.
Though Yu Weifeng’s kidnapping case was initially closed after a few years, the investigators in Shenzhen’s Futian District again reopened it, reports Metro. Then they used AI-based software, much like the recently trending FaceApp, to predict what the missing boy might look like at present before searching their huge database to locate him. They were able to single out Weifeng, who is currently studying in provincial capital Guangzhou, after sorting through almost 100 candidates.
“When we found him, he refused to believe that he was a kidnapped child, but DNA confirmed that he was a match with his biological parents,” the case’s investigating officer Zheng Zhenhai told to Metro.
Weifeng presently stays with his adoptive parents and use their family name Li, reports The Sun. “We’re very grateful to his foster parents for raising him for 18 years. From now on, his foster father will become like a brother to me; my son will have two dads,” Weifeng’s biological father later told to Metro.
