Joy White next to her daughters crib shortly after Carlina Whites kidnapping. Growing up, White sometimes wondered if Pettway was her real mother. In this article, we take a look at a woman who kidnapped a child only 19 days after her birth. NEW YORK (CBS/AP) Ann Pettway, the woman believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of Carlina White, who at 19-days-old was abducted from a New York hospital and then was finally reunited. The parents spared no effort in trying to locate their child. You took something away from me," Tyson said. [10][11] White stated, "I just hope that the officials be able to get her in their hands, so we can just hear her side of the story now. [6], The case was the first known infant abduction from a New York hospital.[7]. On Aug. 4, 1987, Joy White and Carl Tyson rushed their newborn daughter, Carlina White, to the hospital due to a fever. Even in the beginning of the year, with all the drama and stuff, I was kind of cloudy. For the following 23 years, Carlina White became Nejdra Nance. Joy White said she remembered Pettway, posing as a nurse, consoling her before picking up the baby and waking away. Johnson is a member of the FBI's Crimes Against Children Squad. 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. "Because of my actions so many lives were hurt," she said, adding that she had raised "a wonderful bright young woman". Curtis Cousin Eddie Smith Claims Alex Murdaugh Made Him A Fall Guy, Morgan Doughty Filed A Lawsuit Against The Murdaugh Family, Buster Murdaugh Testified For The Defense At His Fathers Double Murder Trial, TikTok Star Bel Priestley Teases Boundary-Breaking 'Heartstopper' S2, Get Even More From Bustle Sign Up For The Newsletter. She then allegedly told an FBI agent she stole White after. While on the website of theNational Center for Missing and Exploited Children, she found baby Carlinas photos and realized that they matched her own features. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. She has reconnected with her biological parents but admits that she still has love for the woman she called Mom for the first 23 years of her life. Nevertheless, the family continued to try to build a relationship, and White flew to New York to meet them for the first time. For the next few weeks, White was in constant contact with her birth parents, but she sometimes struggled to form a relationship with them. Later, Carl Tyson recalled that a woman wearing a nurses uniform directed them upon their arrival, and he saw her again while looking for a phone to update Whites grandparents on her condition. DNA testing was performed to confirm that Carlina White was indeed their child. Pettway is truly sorry," according to Johnson's court document. One day, Ann confessed that she was not the biological mother. In July 2012, she was sentenced to 12 years in prison. WCBS 880's Irene Cornell With More On The Story. When Netty was 10 years old, Ann gave birth to a son, and the children were raised as siblings. Her skin was much lighter than Pettways, and though relatives often called her little Ann, she didnt see a physical resemblance at all. Authorities issued a warrant for Pettway's arrest for violating her parole in a North Carolina embezzlement case. When Joy White and Carl Tyson came with their daughter, Carlina, to get her fever checked, Ann even consoled them. Perhaps they'll have a reunion of their own when Pettway is released. Pettway, who had been loitering around the facility for at least a few weeks, if not months, before the abduction, police toldThe New York Times (opens in new tab), had been dressed as a nurse and interacted with White's parents upon their arrival at the hospital. Morgan Doughty Filed A Lawsuit Against The Murdaugh Family, Curtis Cousin Eddie Smith Claims Alex Murdaugh Made Him A Fall Guy, Buster Murdaugh Testified For The Defense At His Fathers Double Murder Trial, Love Is Blinds SK Addressed Cheating Claims Following Raven's 'After The Altar' Interview, Get Even More From Bustle Sign Up For The Newsletter. The last time White spoke publicly was at the 2014 Crimes Against Children Conference. There, she found a photo of a baby who had been kidnapped in 1987 and looked just like her own daughter, Samani. First published on January 21, 2011 / 6:45 PM. Please offer your thoughts in the comments section below First published on July 30, 2012 / 11:27 PM. 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. White spent the next several years searching for her birth parents. Carlina White's father, Carl Tyson, insinuated the punishment was too lenient and felt as though Pettway should receive prison time equivalent to the years his daughter was kept away from him. ABC News' Kaitlyn Folmer contributed to this report. There was no paperwork to follow her such as a birth certificate or social security card. How did she accomplish this in the first place? As documented in Unsolved Mysteries, White was abducted from a New York hospital in 1987 when she was just 19 days old. Carlina White grew up believing her name was Nejdra Nance. He was last seen at a water park in Wisconsin Dells,. She brought her beautiful daughter. Nurses said they had checked on baby White every five minutes and had discovered she was missing at 3:40 a.m. hospital to rest after their baby was admitted in the middle of the "She was strict, but she was cool. Pettway turned herself into FBI officials in Bridgeport, Conn., on Sunday. Pettway confessed to the FBI that she kidnapped Carlina White on Aug. 4, 1987 from Harlem Hospital after enduring several miscarriages. NY 10036. published October 18, 2020. Dis friends have said she referred to the doctor as the love of her life.. 1 of 6 Ann Pettway turned herself in on Sunday, Jan. 23, 2011 to authorities in Bridgeport, Conn. Pettway was charged in 1987 kidnapping of Carlina White from Harlem Hospital in New York City. Pettway was convicted of five crimes while Ms White was in her custody, according to a probation department, and had used cocaine from 1983 to 2005. DNA tests last year confirmed her as the daughter of Joy White and Carl Tyson. In a flat. 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. There was no way of knowing what the woman in white looked like except for the description given by Joy White and Carl Tyson. At that point, Pettway confessed to not being her biological mother, but claimed White's mom had abandoned her. Joy White and Carl Tyson both confirmed that most of this money had been spent during the years before their reunion, and that a trust fund that had been established was obtainable only if Carlina had been found before the age of 21. Biological family of Carlina White doesn't believe confessed kidnapper is sorry. As reported by New York magazine, Tyson dropped his girlfriend at her house and returned home to try to get some sleep. (opens in new tab)The boys were abducted from the same Harlem playground just three months apart in 1989, when they were 2 years old and 19 months old, respectively. [9], After the confirmation that Nejdra Nance was really Carlina White, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began a search for Ann Pettway. She "looked like the world was lifted off her shoulders looked a bit relieved because she had been running," Daniels said. 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. She claimed that White was abandoned by her mother at birth. "For 23 years, Ann, you had me suffering. Then, in a quest to find some answers, Netty turned to the internet. 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. When Pettway refused to offer any further information, White's suspicions grew, and she spent the next several years searching for stories of kidnappings in the Bridgeport area. Meanwhile, Carlina's abductor, Ann Pettway, had renamed her Nejdra Nance. She has been incarcerated since surrendering to Bridgeport police in January, ending a several-day manhunt that began in North Carolina. [15] On July 30, 2012, Judge P. Kevin Castel sentenced Pettway, who was then 50 years old, to 12 years in prison. It was wonderful, she didnt even seem like a stranger, she just fit right in, Whites biological grandmother Elizabeth White said. [13] On February 17, 2011, a federal grand jury indicted Pettway on the kidnapping charge. She then reached out to the organization, which put her in touch with her birth parents. She was convicted for kidnapping Carlina White in 2012. 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. With NYPD unable to track her down, Carlina was raised in Bridgeport, Conn., under the name Nejdra Nance by a woman named Ann Pettway. She pleaded guilty in February to kidnapping the three-week-old Ms White from hospital. She handled the potentially awkward moment with grace. At that point, 23-year-old White started scouring the internet for clues as to her true identity. I just always believed that she would find me. She spent her childhood in Bridgeport, Connecticut, before she and Pettway moved to Atlanta, Georgia. Kates coat was a Catherine Walker rewear; Diana wore her Moschino suit numerous times. White was portrayed by Keke Palmer in the Lifetime film Abducted: The Carlina White Story. By Andrea Park. Jessica O'Connor is a public historian focusing on Deep South Black History with degrees from Winston-Salem State University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In 2005, when White was pregnant with her daughter, she requested Pettway obtain her birth certificate so she could get health insurance. White explained, There was a part of me that wasnt even there, and now I feel whole. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Pettway, who had experienced several miscarriages, abducted White from a hospital by posing as a nurse. 2011 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. For the next twenty-three years Carlina's parents continued to search for their daughter. This also included an attempted embezzlement charge from 2010. Ann Pettway, 51, learned her fate after pleading guilty to a kidnapping charge in February. Daniels said that the Pettway family is well known in the area and that his own sister had been friends with Pettway. February 10, 2012, 8:42 AM. Police began a thorough investigation, and for a while they thought they had a suspect. Instead, Ann had experienced several miscarriages and failed pregnancies, and it was the stress of not knowing whether shed ever become a mother again that led her to kidnap baby Carlina. Joy White (Sherri Shepherd) confronts Ann Pettway (Aunjanue Ellis), the woman who kidnapped her baby girl and raised her as her own, in this scene from Abduc. Pettway changed White's name to "Nejdra Nance" and raised her in Bridgeport, Conn. White said she had long suspected Pettway wasn't her biological mother becausethey didn't look anything alike and Pettway could never provide her with a birth certificate. After White pressed her about it for several days, Pettway finally gave her the birth certificate but when White tried to submit it, officials said it was a forgery. She apologized for her crime at her sentencing hearing in 2012, when her lawyers reportedly argued that she "was motivated not by greed or desire to do harm, but by a desperate desire for a child, combined with depression and grief over her failed pregnancies and significant mental illness.". Like Christopher Dansby and Shane Walker, White was kidnapped in New York when she was a child in the '80s. 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 may be rejected, but I am deeply sorry for what I've done. Carlina White pulled away from her birth parents and returned home to Atlanta. All the show tunes! It wasn't until White was in high school that she. North Carolina Department of Correction spokeswoman Pam Walker said officials have tried unsuccessfully to reach Pettway several times. Netty graduated from Warren Harding High School, following which, Ann and her moved out to Atlanta for a while. The Connecticut Post reports that Pettways sister Cassandra Johnson helped White reach out to NCMEC in December 2010. A security guard had seen someone matching the womans description leave the hospital around 3:30 a.m. She didnt have a baby with her, but he believed it was possible that the missing infant had been hidden in her smock. Upon discovering her kidnapping and her biological parents, she kept her legal name as Carlina White. The couple didn't see their daughter until earlier this month when White's true identity was established. Netty's not what the Pettway family gave me or what the White family gave me. Court document she stole White after Children were raised as siblings I was kind of cloudy Keke. 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