Police in Hebei province are investigating the claims of a married couple that family-planning officials took their daughter away from them against their will 19 years ago.

The couple, Liu Laogen and Xia Fengge, claim that their third child — a daughter born on April 29, 1995 — was removed from the family home 11 days after the child’s birth. The couple say the baby was taken by two women who claimed to be government officials in charge of family-planning policy, the Beijing News reported.

The police collected blood samples from the couple on Thursday morning as part of their investigation into the case, the report said.

Liu sued the township government in 2003, demanding information on what had happened to the child, but lost the case. The family appealed the court’s decision but their appeal was rejected.

According to the policy in the 1995, urban families could have one child, and rural families could have at most two children, but only if the first one was a girl.