Over 20 years has passed since a newborn, sick with fever, was abducted from a New York City hospital.
Carlina White was just 19 days old when she disappeared from Harlem Hospital on Aug. 4, 1987.? Police searched high and low for her kidnappers but never found enough evidence to charge any suspects.
The child’s frantic mother, Joy White, ached for her missing child but always had a feeling that her baby was alive somewhere.
On Wednesday, (January 19, 2011), police said the baby, now a grown woman living in Atlanta, has finally been found and you’ll never believe how…
The missing infant is now 23 years old and has been living in Atlanta as Nejdra Nance. She was raised in Bridgeport, Conn.
Nance ontacted White, sending along baby photos that looked nearly identical to shots of Carlina posted on a missing children’s website, and told White she thought she may be her missing daughter.
The White Family reuninted
“She said she just had a feeling, she felt different from the people raising her,” said Nance’s maternal grandmother, Elizabeth White, 71. “She searched, and then she found Joy.”
Joy White contacted the New York Police Department to see if it could help investigate whether the woman was really Carlina White.
“It sounded legitimate and credible, so I had missing persons reach out to her,” said Detective Martin Brown, who fielded the call.
DNA tests performed on Joy White, her ex-husband, Carl Tyson, and 23-year-old Nance matched, police said. Nejdra Nance was indeed Carlina White!
VIDEO: Woman Abducted as Infant in 1987 Meets Family
As part of their investigation, police are talking to retired detectives who handled the case years ago. Because she was so young when she was kidnapped, it’s impossible for Nance to know if she has lived with the same family the entire time.
Nance came to New York with her 5-year-old daughter, Samani, where she was finally reunited with her parents, 23 years after being kidnapped from her mother’s hospital bed.
“It was wonderful, she didn’t even seem like a stranger, she just fit right in,” Elizabeth White said. “We all went up there, we had dinner together, her aunts were there. She brought her beautiful daughter. It was magic.”
Elizabeth White said she didn’t ask Nance too many questions about how she grew up or how she knew she was not a member of the family with whom she lived. She didn’t want to push Nance too much.
“That will all come,” Elizabeth White said of the history. “What’s important now is our baby girl is home. She’s home.”
(Source)