DNA News - San Jose

SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 22 (UPI) -- A mother and daughter separated by civil war were reunited with the help of a DNA database, the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News reported Friday. Angela Fillingim, 21, was surrendered to authorities in 1982 during the El Salvadorian civil war and later adopted at 6 months of age by a couple from Berkeley, Calif. A joint research project between the University of California-Berkeley Human Rights Center and the Association Pro-Busqueda de Ninas y Ninos Desaparecidos (Search for Missing Children) in El Salvador maintains a database of DNA samples. The project was recently able to reunite Fillingim with her mother, Blanca Angelica Rodriguez Campos, and her grandparents.