Stolen at birth: Chilean kidnapped during dictatorship meets mother after 42 years

Jimmy Lippert Thyden, who was stolen at birth during the rule of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and raised in the United States and Maria Angelica Gonzalez, his biological mother, meet in Valdivia, Chile, in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters on August 29, 2023. Constanza del Rio/ NGO Nos Buscamos/Handout via REUTERS

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A 42-year-old lawyer who was stolen at birth during the rule of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and raised in the United States has traveled thousands of miles to South America to meet his biological mother for the first time.

"She didn't know about me because they took me at birth and told her I was dead," Jimmy Lippert Thyden said in a TikTok video while on the plane to meet his mother for the first time. "When she asked for my body, they told her they had disposed of it."