Boy, 8, Meets His Dad in Awkward, Tender Union : Families: FBI arranges first encounter of father, son to set stage for upcoming abduction trial involving the child’s mother and 2 others. The youngster was taken from his grandmother in Cypress in 1992.

Throughout his life, 8-year-old Danny Lans has been plagued by one question no one could answer for certain: Who is his father?

Ironically, the answer did not begin to unfold until Danny was snatched from his grandmother’s arms on the way to school one morning last year. The FBI found Danny three days later and, in the course of its criminal investigation, unearthed his father’s identity through blood testing.

On Saturday morning, Greg Holder, who learned only a month ago that he had a son in Cypress, met Danny for the first time.

“I never knew who was my dad until this happened,” a smiling Danny said. “I never knew he was coming.”

“I was very anxious to meet him . . . and a little nervous,” Danny said.

As Holder stepped through the front door of Danny’s home Saturday, father and son nervously sized each other up for a moment and then hugged tightly. Holder lifted Danny off the floor and carried him to a corner of the kitchen, away from a knot of relatives and reporters there to witness the meeting.

“How are you?” Holder asked twice, trying to hold back tears.

Holder arrived with his wife and their young daughter, as well as his mother. The two families greeted each other with embraces and gathered in the living room to look at the photo album.

The awkward union between father and son occurred under less-than-ideal circumstances.

Danny is caught in a bitter custody battle that pits his grandparents, Janet and David Lans, who have legal custody of Danny and have raised him since infancy, against Nancy Espinoza, the biological mother who gave Danny up shortly after birth and whom he barely knows.

Because Holder may testify in the upcoming criminal trial of Danny’s alleged kidnapers, the FBI arranged the meeting so that father and son would not see each other for the first time in court.

The custody battle, which has raged for years, escalated in March, 1992, when Danny was snatched from his grandmother on the way to school, allegedly by Espinoza’s husband, Aaron Espinoza and his brother, Michael.

Three days later, Danny was found in Mesa, Ariz., by the FBI. Nancy, Aaron and Michael Espinoza were arrested and charged with kidnaping and child abduction. All three are to stand trial in March, said Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Kelly MacEachern.

They are out on bail and face maximum sentences of seven years in prison if found guilty, MacEachern said.

Nancy Espinoza still has visitation rights to Danny and has filed for custody of the child. Nancy Espinoza and Holder had lived together in Mesa in the mid-1980s and broke up shortly before Danny was born, according to MacEachern and Kimberly Fritz, Danny’s aunt. Holder left without being sure if the unborn child of Nancy Espinoza was his, they said.

More than a year after the abduction, the FBI located Holder in Arizona, and subsequent blood tests confirmed that he was Danny’s father, MacEachern said. The FBI found Holder after discovering court documents filed by Nancy Espinoza in Hawaii which listed Holder as the father, MacEachern said.

A few weeks ago, an FBI agent arranged a telephone conversation between Holder and Danny.

Danny said that that first conversation was both awkward and exhilarating. “I couldn’t think of anything to ask him,” Danny said. After a number of ‘How are you?’ greetings, Danny was able to establish that his father was a football fan and enjoyed sports.

Shortly thereafter, Holder sent Danny a photo album containing pictures of himself. The resemblance between father and son is striking.

Janet and David Lans said they were relieved that Danny finally got to meet his father.

“Since the abduction, he has been really questioning us: ‘Who is my real father?’ ” David Lans.

“It took Daniel and I months and months to recover from the abduction,” Janet Lans said. “What 8-year-old can understand all this?” Janet asked. “He just wants to be a real human being again.”