Woman Who Kidnapped Baby And Raised Her, Both Found Alive 18 Years After| Shocking Details

An 18-year-old South Carolina teenager’s life was turned inside out when the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and FBI informed her that the woman she called her mother for her entire life had been arrested for kidnapping her from a Jacksonville hospital when she was a day old, authorities announced Friday, cracking a case that went unsolved for 18 years.

Kamiyah Mobley was kidnapped from a hospital in Florida at about 3 p.m. in 1998, when 51-year-old Gloria Williams (pictured beside the baby above), posing as a nurse, snatched the 8-hour-old baby from her mother’s room, brushing past the Aiken and disappearing for almost two decades, Mirror reports.

The whole incident began on July 10, 1998, at the University Medical Center in Jacksonville, now known as the UF Health Jacksonville.

Shanara Mobley, who was only 16 at that time, had given birth to Kamiyah. Eight hours later, a woman posing as a nurse said the newborn had a fever and needed to be looked at. The woman picked up Kamiyah and left the hospital, never to be seen again. At the time Kamiyah was born, her father was in jail for having sex with a minor, (Shanara).

Authorities said the woman had roamed the halls of the University Medical Center for 14 hours. She had spent five hours with Kamiyah and her mother, Shanara. But nurses had thought the kidnapper was a Mobley family member.

By the time the hospital management was notified, it was too late. Police called bus and train stations and airports to look out for baby Kamiyah. The FBI became involved.

It was a tip last year that led Jacksonville police to South Carolina, where they found an 18-year-old woman with Kamiyah Mobley’s birth date but a different name. They soon found out that fraudulent documents had been used to establish her identity. 

A DNA sample was taken and matched with the original newborn DNA taken the day Kamiyah was born. The test confirmed the teen was, in fact, Kamiyah.

Jacksonville Sheriff, Mike Williams said the suspect has been charged with kidnapping and interfering with custody, adding that no other people are currently suspects in the case.

He said it was now up to Kamiyah to decide whether and when to be reunited with her birth family in Jacksonville.

State Attorney, Melissa Nelson claimed authorities have met with her biological parents and are working with them as the case progresses.

At the time of the kidnapping, police searched every floor and room of the hospital looking for Kamiyah. There were no photographs of Kamiyah so police asked the public to be vigilante for a baby with an umbilical hernia, like a raised belly button, and bruising on her buttocks.

The teenager is understandably emotional at the shocking news.

Photo credit: Facebook/Mirror