A COUPLE met their missing son last month, 22 years after the last time they saw their boy, thanks to Shenzhen police’s big data analysis system, the Daily Sunshine reported.

The couple came to Shenzhen from Hunan Province with their then 5-year-old son 22 years ago. The mother, identified as Lu, found her son had gone missing Oct. 31, 1996 when she was working at a toy factory in Longgang District.

Lu looked for the boy in every place she could think of but still could not find him. Since then, Lu and her husband have been traveling around looking for their missing son.

Earlier this year, Lu learned from a TV program that Shenzhen police could use big data of DNA samples to look for missing family members, so she wrote a letter to the public security bureau in March.

After receiving Lu’s letter, the bureau assigned the work to Longgang sub-bureau, who started investigating the whereabouts of Lu’s son.

The police also collected Lu’s blood sample for DNA examination. Comparison with samples in the big data system showed that Lu’s DNA was a close match with a sample belonging to a man named Li Wenjun.

Information showed that Li was born Jan. 1, 1992, and had been working in Huadu District of Guangzhou.

Based on the information, Longgang police visited Li on April 10 and asked him to come to Shenzhen to give another DNA sample for further examination.

Three days later, the police confirmed that Li was Lu’s missing son. The family was reunited in tears and laughter.

Li said he lost his way and was found in a park in Guangzhou. A warm-hearted resident took him to a local police station, but after waiting for a long time, no one had come to claim the boy.

Li was sent to the Guangzhou Welfare Center, and a family in Huizhou City adopted him.

(Zhang Qian)