A woman who was kidnapped on Mother's Day weekend in 1976 when she was 21 months old has just reunited with the mother she thought had passed away long ago.

The mother of the woman, Laura Gooder, had never given up searching for her child, who was kidnapped by her ex-husband and her child's father, Eric Douglas Nielson.

Just before Mother's Day this year, police found Nielson in an Arizona jail and were able to locate his daughter, now almost 32 with a child of her own.

When the daughter realized her mother was alive she was shocked.

"The daughter is just reeling ... Her whole life is a house of cards built on lies," says Sheriff Michael Bouchard.