Dallas couple says newborn was switched in El Salvador

Before Cushworth and Casanalles made international news, they were an international love story that began at Christ for the Nations, a Bible college in Dallas.

Cushworth is a British-born North Texas resident. He met Casanalles, who also has a 12-year-old son, when she came to Texas on a one-year study visa from El Salvador.

They married, although she had to return to El Salvador. Cushworth visited her every chance he could, and they were thrilled when she got pregnant, friends say.

“He’s such a great guy,” said Alfredo Navarro, a friend. “He was so excited for him and his wife, having this baby.”

Casanalles told reporters in El Salvador that months before she gave birth, she recalled Guidos telling her that her child would be dark-skinned. She found that odd, given that Cushworth is white.

In May, she was admitted to the hospital in El Salvador for an emergency C-section, while Cushworth was in North Texas.

She said when she saw the baby, she thought he looked like her husband. But the baby nurses brought her later didn’t, and didn’t appear premature as her baby had been. The baby she received had a thick head of black hair and a mole that she didn’t recall seeing.

Beishline and Navarro said the couple reluctantly took the baby home from the hospital.

“She had really felt there was something wrong from the beginning,” Beishline said.

Their suspicions grew so much so that decided to have the DNA testing done.

“I would take photos of him and put them next to my husband, trying to find something of us in him,” she told the TV station in El Salvador. “I kept trying to convince myself that he was really ours, that over time we would begin to see a resemblance. But my motherly instincts kept telling me that he wasn’t mine.”

After getting the DNA results back, they returned to El Salvador on the advice of their attorney, Beishline said.

“The first thing he said was that it looks like the baby was definitely taken on purpose and that it looks like the doctor was involved,” he said.

Beishline said Casanalles moved to Dallas less than a month ago to continue studying at Christ for the Nations. The couple is currently living on the school’s campus.

Their friends are just praying for a miracle.

 “You know the Bible says that light will shine in the darkness…We believe that God will bring something out of this including the baby coming back,” Beishline said.