Man Arrested for Kidnapping Grandkids 20 Years Ago

California police are holding a man they say confessed to kidnapping his two grandchildren in Tennessee in 1989 and raising them as his own 2,000 miles away, the San Jose Mercury News reports. John Bunting seemed like a model citizen, home-schooling the boy and girl; cops acted after a tip this week that he was in fact Marvin Maple, 73 and a fugitive.

The kids seem no worse off for the kidnapping; they are now 28 and 27, respectively, living on their own near San Jose. Their parents “are very glad to know they are alive,” said a Tennessee sheriff, who is in San Jose to fetch Maple. “Of course,” he added, “it remains to be seen if the children would like to speak with them.” (More Marvin Maple stories.)