After comparing baby photos of "Nejdra" to Carlina's, and with White sporting the same birthmark on her arm as baby Carlina, the NYPD contacted Joy and Carl for DNA samples. Authorities say a woman dressed as a nurse abducted a newborn Carlina White on Aug. 4, 1987 from a crib at Harlem Hospital in New York City. It wasnt until 2010 that she visited the NCMEC website and expanded her search outside of her home state. White toldNew York (opens in new tab)magazine in 2011 that while Pettway was somewhat distant, she was a responsible caregiver. North Carolina Department of Correction spokeswoman Pam Walker said officials have tried unsuccessfully to reach Pettway several times. "It was wrong," Pettway told the judge when she entered her guilty plea today in a New York courtroom. The last thing Joy White could recall about the nurse was a bizarre comment she made as her newborn daughter was admitted: The baby dont cry for you, you cry for the baby. She now believes it was the womans attempt to get rid of her. I'm here to right my wrong," she said in court. All the dance numbers! She has been incarcerated since surrendering to Bridgeport police in January, ending a several-day manhunt that began in North Carolina. Pettway offered an emotional apology in court, saying it was understandable if the family didn't accept it. 2023 BBC. How did she accomplish this in the first place? On Aug. 4, 1987, Joy White and Carl Tyson rushed their newborn daughter, Carlina White, to the hospital due to a fever. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? But I can appreciate what she did for me.. According to New York magazine, White was in high school when she discovered that her birth certificate was fake. Even though the hospital had video cameras, they were not working that night. According to records from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Pettway is still serving her sentence in New York, but she won't be serving all 12 years of it. White was abducted from New York City's Harlem Hospital Center in Aug. 1987, when she was just 19 days old. Netty graduated from Warren Harding High School, following which, Ann and her moved out to Atlanta for a while. She "looked like the world was lifted off her shoulders looked a bit relieved because she had been running," Daniels said. As reported by New York magazine, Tyson dropped his girlfriend at her house and returned home to try to get some sleep. The indictment against Ann Pettway was. In 2005, when White was pregnant with her daughter, she requested Pettway obtain her birth certificate so she could get health insurance. According to the Chicago Tribune, this was partly due to the press attention, but also because White wasn't able to sue New York state for what happened to her. A family member worked with authorities to arrange Pettway's surrender. He was last seen at a water park in Wisconsin Dells,. White nonetheless searched for her biological parents for several years, eventually finding a photo on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's website that looked like her own daughter. Feb. 10, 2012 -- A woman who snatched an infant from a New York City hospital 24 years ago and raised her as her daughter pleaded guilty today to a federal kidnapping . Ann eventually gave birth to a son. A woman posing as a nurse later revealed to be Ann Pettway took White and raised her as her own child, renaming her Nejdra "Netty" Nance. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. White explained, There was a part of me that wasnt even there, and now I feel whole. "As we've learned of her involvement in this abduction, we've been working to locate her, and we haven't been able to reach her," Keith Acree, a spokesman for the Department of Correction in North Carolina, told the New York Post. It was wrong.''. . Finally, as White was about to board her plane back home to Atlanta, the NYPD contacted her to tell her that her DNA matched Joy and Carl's. "She was strict, but she was cool. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. [19] As of 2014, she continues to have a relationship with her biological parents.[19][20]. To secure medical assistance from the state, she had to provide her original birth certificate. He said that she was relieved to confess. Pettway posed a nurse, took the baby from the couple and pretended to take her for treatment. Feb. 10, 2012— -- A woman who snatched an infant from a New York City hospital 24 years ago and raised her as her daughter pleaded guilty today to a federal kidnapping charge and faces at least 10 years in prison. DNA tests last year confirmed her as the daughter of Joy White and Carl Tyson. [2], Carlina was 19 days old when her parents, Joy White and Carl Tyson, took her to the hospital with a fever of 104F (40C) on August4, 1987. Pettway acquired a forged Connecticut birth certificate, which White attempted to use as proof of identity so she could obtain the health insurance, but the officials told her the document was forged. The center quickly contacted Joy White and Carl Tyson to inform them their long-lost daughter was found. She passed herself off as a nurse, and even the other nurses belived her. In his, Carl told Pettway, "What you should get is 23 years, what you took away from me," while Joy said, "I'm broken into a million pieces." In her plea agreement, Pettway told the court how she had caught a train from her home in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to New York, where she snatched the 19-day-old from Harlem Hospital, after the baby was brought there with a fever by her parents. According to her parents, she does not have a relationship with either of them. January 21, 2011 / 6:45 PM Her biological parents, Joy White and Carl Tyson, said they left the Paleontologists In North Dakota Just Found The Remains Of A Dinosaur That Was Killed The Day The Asteroid Struck, The Disturbing Disappearance Of 18-Year-Old Zebb Quinn And The Series Of Bizarre Clues Left Behind, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. I was, but only because she hid something from me for so long. WCBS 880's Irene Cornell With More On The Story. If they don't accept it, it's understandable. Pettway's attorney, Robert Baum, plans to obtain her hospital records and review her medical history. Please enter valid email address to continue. There, she found a photo of a baby who had been kidnapped in 1987 and looked just like her own daughter, Samani. Plus, you can learn more about the dangers lurking out there from the comfort of your own home. The case made headlines internationally and solved a mystery that had baffled police for more than two decades. Finally, more than 23 years after her kidnapping, White was reunited with her parents in 2011. As Carlina grew older she began to wonder why she did not look like the rest of her family. [8], In 1987, New York City Police Department detectives questioned a woman in Baltimore, who witnesses had identified as having been seen in the hospital, without apparent result. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. NCMEC reached out to Joy White and Carl Tyson through email just before Christmas 2011. That was something that I always believed in myself, you know, that she would come and find me and thats the same way that I thought it would happen, Joy White said of receiving the miraculous email. In July 2012, Pettway was sentenced to twelve years in prison. White then got in touch with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, submitted a DNA sample, and eventually learned her true identity in 2011; the following year, Pettway was sentenced to 12 years in prison for kidnapping after turning herself in. It was the same woman who had given Tyson directions earlier. Pettway served her sentence in the Federal Correctional Institution, Aliceville in Alabama until she was released on April 14, 2021. It was magic.. With the center's help, she was ultimately able to narrow down her search for her birth parents to two possible cases. In the second volume of Netflix's reboot of the classic true crime series Unsolved Mysteries, one episode explores the tragic back-to-back kidnappings . Pettway confessed to taking 3-week-old Carlina White from Harlem Hospital's emergency room in 1987. However, Pettway claimed that White was abandoned as a child and that she'd taken her in. She was reunited with her birth parents 23 years after being abducted. She was declared an absconder Friday and put into a national law enforcement database. It's what I gave myself," she said. Where Are Carlina Whites Biological Parents Now. White recognizes that she caused her biological family pain when she pulled away after meeting them, but she was overwhelmed by the media attention and felt guilt about abandoning the family who raised her. It wasn't until 2010, when she was 23 and living in Atlanta, that she decided to try expanding her search outside of Connecticut, and found a photo of a baby who had been abducted in 1987 and looked just like her own young daughter on the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's website. "We say listen, the Whites, we're sorry this happened, but at the same time too, have some compassion for our relative," Brian Pettway, a cousin of Ann Pettway, said. Ms White traced her true mother after finding a photo of herself on the website of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It was a full two decades later, when Carlina White was due to become a mother herself, that she discovered the truth. When Pettway could not produce White's birth certificate, the young woman began searching missing person Web sites and eventually contacted the Center for Missing and Exploited Children. (There is always the possibility that the infant was hiding in Anns smock). Ann Pettway, 51, had pleaded guilty to kidnapping in February and offered details of the 1987 kidnapping. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Carlina White solved her own kidnapping case in 2005. [citation needed] At age 23, White used websites such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, where she found that the images of the kidnapped Carlina resembled infant photos of herself as Nejdra and those of her daughter, Samani. [18] By the following July, White became estranged from her biological parents. [citation needed] An arrest warrant for Ann Pettway was issued by the North Carolina Department of Correction on January 21, 2011, for violating her probation from a conviction for attempted embezzlement. Pettway finally had to confess to White that she wasnt her biological mother. White attended Thomas Hooker School and graduated from Warren Harding High School in Bridgeport. "If I had all that anger in me it would be me who would suffer and it would stop me from living.". For the next year, White kept pressing Pettway for more details about her birth mother, but Pettway claimed she couldnt remember anything. Harry and Meghan told to 'vacate' Frogmore Cottage, Explosive found in check-in luggage at US airport, Fungus case forces Jack Daniels to halt construction, Rare Jurassic-era bug found at Arkansas Walmart, China and Belarus call for peace in Ukraine. [12] She had driven from North Carolina to Connecticut to arrange care for her biological son. "She lied to Carlina, to law enforcement and state authorities for 23 years," the prosecutor said. Timmothy, from Aurora, Illinois, would be 14 years old now. The woman who sparked a nationwide manhunt by snatching a baby from Harlem Hospital a quarter century ago closed the book on the sensational case Friday by pleading guilty to kidnapping. Ann Pettway, who pleaded guilty in February to . As part of her plea bargain, prosecutors originally recommended a sentence of 10 to 12 years in prison. Lt. David Daniels was the point person from the Bridgeport Police Department who helped arrange the surrender. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. / CBS News. Pettway acquired a forged Connecticut birth certificate, which White attempted to use as proof of identity so she could obtain the health insurance, but the officials told her the document was forged. She retreated from family and friends including her newly-discovered biological parents Joy and Carl, with whom she had a complicated relationship. At that point, 23-year-old White started scouring the internet for clues as to her true identity. [6], The case was the first known infant abduction from a New York hospital.[7]. She contacted the agency and finally learned the truth in 2011. Well, she had on a nurse's uniform that night, and prior to that, she had spent 2-3 weeks in the hospital. Biological family of Carlina White doesn't believe confessed kidnapper is sorry. White was discovered missing early in the morning of Aug. 4, and a security guard reported having seen a woman matching Pettway's description leaving the hospital around 3:30 a.m. Pettway raised White as Nejdra Nance, nicknamed Netty, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, with the help of her own mother. Prosecutors increased their recommended sentence to 20 years, saying they had uncovered new facts about the case. [1] Joy White later stated that there had been a falling out over the issue of the money. Though White didn't appear at Pettway's trial, her birth parents gave emotional testimonies at the sentencing. [5] DNA profiling confirmed in January 2011 that she was the missing Carlina White. Carlina keeps in touch with her birth parents, but they are not. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. [3] A guard said a woman matching the suspect's description left the hospital at 3:30am, and that no infant was visible, although the baby could have been concealed in the heavyset woman's smock. (Craig Warga/New York Daily News) A mother faced her baby's kidnapper in a New York courtroom Monday, and it was clear that the wound she suffered when the woman stole her infant from Harlem. Ann Pettway abducted baby Carlina White from Harlem Hospital on August4, 1987, and raised the child as her own. Friends and family assumed shed gone elsewhere to give birth to the baby, presumed to be the daughter of her on-again, off-again boyfriend Robert Nance. It turned out that Carlina was actually being raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and went by the name Nejdra Netty Nance. In thesecond volume (opens in new tab)of Netflix's reboot of the classic true crime seriesUnsolved Mysteries (opens in new tab), one episode explores the tragic back-to-back kidnappings ofChristopher Dansby and Shane Walker. Carlina White/FacebookCarlina White was reunited with her birth parents in 2011. Pettway confessed to the FBI that she kidnapped Carlina White on Aug. 4, 1987 from Harlem Hospital after enduring several miscarriages. Carlina White was snatched from a Harlem hospital as an infant in 1987 and raised as "Nejdra Nance" by her kidnapper Annugetta Pettway, who claimed to be her mother. Then, in a quest to find some answers, Netty turned to the internet. Little did these new parents know, however, that this night would be the last time they would see their child for the next 23 years. She has been incarcerated since surrendering to Bridgeport police in January, ending a several-day manhunt that began in North Carolina. So she went to the woman she had called mom her whole life Annugetta "Ann" Pettway. As documented in Unsolved Mysteries, White was abducted from a New York hospital in 1987 when she was just 19 days old. Carlina White Was Abducted As A Baby Then Solved Her Own Kidnapping 23 Years Later. A woman reportedly dressed as a nurse had comforted the parents at the hospital, but was not a hospital employee. She had swallowed fluid during her delivery and had an infection. She called the center's hotline in Dec. 2010, encouraged and aided by Pettway's sister, Cassandra Johnson, per theConnecticut Post (opens in new tab). Here's everything we know about White's miraculous case, from her shocking kidnapping to her triumphant reunion with her birth parents. ", In court, Carlina White's mother, Joy White, said she cried for days after her child was kidnapped and "wondered if she was being fed, washed and loved.". According to records from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Pettway is still serving her sentence in New York, but she won't be serving all 12 years of it. Kates coat was a Catherine Walker rewear; Diana wore her Moschino suit numerous times. February 10, 2012, 8:42 AM. 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