NEW YORK – More than two decades ago, a feverish newborn was snatched from a New York city hospital, her frantic mother returning to the emergency room to find an empty crib. On Wednesday, police said the baby girl – now a woman – had been found.
Carlina White was just 19 days old when she disappeared from Harlem Hospital on August 4th, 1987. Police searched for her kidnappers but never found enough evidence to charge any suspects. Her mother, Joy White, always had a feeling her baby was alive, her family said.
On January 4th, a woman known as Nejdra Nance, who was raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and now lives in Atlanta, contacted Ms White, sending along baby photos that looked almost identical to shots of Carlina posted on a missing children’s website. Ms Nance told Ms White she thought she may be her daughter.
“She said she just had a feeling, she felt different from the people raising her,” said Ms Nance’s maternal grandmother, Elizabeth White (71). “She searched, and then she found Joy.”
Joy White contacted the New York police department to see whether 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 Det Martin Brown, who took the call. DNA tests performed on Joy White, her ex-husband, Carl Tyson, and 23-year-old Nance matched, police said. Ms Nance was Carlina White.
As part of their inquiry, police are talking to retired detectives who had handled the case years ago. Because she was so young when she was kidnapped, it is impossible for Ms Nance to know whether she has lived with the same family the entire time.
Elizabeth White said Ms Nance had been on her way to New York from Atlanta on Wednesday, while Joy White was en route to the airport to meet her. The two had already reunited recently, when Ms Nance came to New York with her five-year-old daughter, Samani.
“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 did not ask Ms Nance too many questions on how she grew up, or how she knew she was not a member of the family with whom she lived. She did not want to push her too much. “That will all come,” she said of the history. “What’s important now is our baby girl is home. She’s home.” – (AP)