A teen who was snatched from hospital as a baby, just hours after her birth, has been reunited with her biological family this week.
Kamiyah Mobley had a ‘tearful’ reunion with her mother on Friday, after a DNA test matched her to a baby taken by a woman posing as a nurse in 1998.
Now 18, Kamiyah had spent the past 18 years being raised by her kidnapper, 51-year-old Gloria Williams, in South Carolina – about 200 miles from the hospital she was born in.
#KamiyahMobley - Original composite and sketches released at the time the kidnapping occured. #JAX #JSO #Jacksonville pic.twitter.com/ToqdGprgHL
— Jax Sheriff's Office (@JSOPIO) January 13, 2017
The reunion came to be when, last year, Kamiyah began to question her identity. While no information about her decision was given, a sheriff confirmed that she approached the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
The centre approached the sheriff, who went through old cases and came across the Mobley abduction. That child had been snatched eight hours after her birth and, despite an extensive search, police never found a trace.
Kamiyah gave a DNA sample, which was cross-referenced with the system – and, at last, Kamiyah’s true identity was revealed.
Kamiyah’s biological family were immediately informed, and they were reunited in an emotionally-charged meeting on Friday.
Ms Williams, meanwhile, was arrested and charged with kidnap.
Speaking at a news conference, Sheriff Mike Williams said of Kamiyah: “She’s taking it as well as you can imagine. She has a lot to process. I can’t even begin to comprehend it.”
He added that she is in ‘good health’.
The news was a dream come true for Kamiyah’s mum Shanara, who apparently used to wrap a piece of birthday cake and store it in the freezer each year on her daughter’s birthday.
