More than 20 years later, missing NY baby is found:Carlina White/FBI Looking for Ann Pettway, the Kidnapper/Pettway Has Criminal Record and Was Abusive to Carlina/Nejdra/Pettway sentenced to 12 yrs in prison

NEW YORK – More than two decades ago, a newborn sick with fever 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 — now a woman — has been found.
Carlina White was just 19 days old when she disappeared from Harlem Hospital on Aug. 4, 1987. Police searched for her kidnappers but never found enough evidence to charge any suspects. Her mother, Joy White, always had a feeling that her baby was alive, her family said.
On Jan. 4, a woman known as Nejdra Nance, who was raised in Bridgeport, Conn., and now lives in Atlanta, contacted White, sending along baby photos that looked nearly identical to shots of Carlina posted on a missing children's website. Nance told White she thought she may be her daughter.
"She said she just had a feeling, she felt different from the people raising her," said Nance's maternal grandmother, Elizabeth White, 71. "She searched, and then she found Joy."
Joy White contacted the New York Police Department to see if 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 Detective Martin Brown, who fielded the call. DNA tests performed on Joy White, her ex-husband, Carl Tyson, and 23-year-old Nance matched, police said. Nejdra Nance was Carlina White.
As part of their investigation, police are talking to retired detectives who handled the case years ago. Because she was so young when she was kidnapped, it's impossible for Nance to know if she has lived with the same family the entire time.
Nance was on her way back to New York from Atlanta on Wednesday, said Elizabeth White, and Joy White was en route to the airport to meet her. But they already reunited once recently, when Nance came to New York with her 5-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 didn't ask Nance too many questions about how she grew up or how she knew she was not a member of the family with whom she lived. She didn't want to push Nance too much.
"That will all come," Elizabeth White said of the history. "What's important now is our baby girl is home. She's home."

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Thanks for posting this story lisette! How great is that!!! Miracles do happen and it might give other missing children families more hope too.

:cheering: :celebration: What amazes me is the girl felt that she wasn't related to her parents that raised her! That is amazing in itself!!

Wow. Janie I agree with you. I hope stories like this give families of missing children hope.

What a great story, it's so good to read something that actually has a happy ending for once.
Thanks Lisette!

Carlina White Update: FBI Hunts for Ann Pettway, Suspected Kidnapper of NYC Infant 23 Years Ago
Posted by Naimah Jabali-Nash
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) Federal Bureau of Investigation officials are trying to locate Ann Pettway, a 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 with her biological family twenty-three years later.
Pettway, who allegedly used several birth dates and aliases as she moved between Connecticut, Georgia and then North Carolina, is now nowhere to be found as officials search for answers in the decades-old investigation, reports The New York Post.

"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 Post.

Pettway is on parole in North Carolina until June 2012 after she was convicted on an embezzlement charge, states the Post.

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. White was raised as Nejdra Nance.

Her biological parents, Joy White and Carl Tyson, said they left the hospital to rest after their baby was admitted in the middle of the night with a high fever. But when they returned they received the shocking news that their newborn was gone.

Relatives told CBS station WCBS that White was raised in an abusive home in Connecticut and then later moved to Georgia.

Carlina White said she became skeptical of her past after Pettway could never provide her with a birth certificate. She discovered her true identity after contacting the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Investigators are not saying whether they have identified any suspects, but the White family believes Pettway is the kidnapper.

"We have our suspicions in this case, but you need more than that for probable cause," said chief NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

Authorities are looking at whether federal officials should take over because the statute of limitations may have expired in New York, said Browne. There is no limitation in federal missing children cases.

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How sad that this child was raised by an abusive woman!

Carlina White's 'other family' used to joke that she looked nothing like her phony mother

The family of Ann Pettway, who raised an infant kidnapped from Harlem Hospital in 1987, long suspected she didn't give birth to the little girl, a relative said Thursday.

Ashley Pettway, who grew up believing kidnap victim Carlina White was his cousin, said the whispers at family reunions were always the same about his aunt and her chubby-cheeked child.

"People would say little things, like she didn't look like Ann," recalled Ashley Pettway. "But it was never spoken out loud, just things said under the table."

When Carlina was small, family members would intervene on her behalf when Ann Pettway would hit or scream at the child, he said.

White, abducted from Harlem Hospital just 19 days after her birth, was finally reunited this month with her blood relatives - including her mom and dad.

The Whites and her father's family, the Tysons, celebrated yet again yesterday inside a 22nd-floor suite at the historic Essex House Hotel. Carlina White flew up from her Atlanta home on Wednesday to meet her extended family.

Carlina and her parents, Joy White and Carl Tyson, hosted the bash on Central Park South, with a parade of relatives visiting amid tight security.

"We just sat and talked - everything about her life," uncle Shannon Tyson said.

"We feel very happy right now - overwhelming happiness. It's like a miracle. I never believed this would happen - that we'd see her again."

He said there would be many more reunions.

"We're strangers now, so we're going to get together, and love each other more and bring the family back together again," he said.

The scene was far less jovial in Bridgeport, Conn., where Ann Pettway's relatives acknowledged that she had raised the little girl known to their clan as Nejdra Nance.

The Pettway family was still reeling from DNA tests that showed Nejdra was actually the girl snatched from the hospital by a woman posing as a nurse.

Ann Pettway's mother, Mary, remained holed up inside her condominium after the staggering revelation.

"She is not okay," said Mary's great-granddaughter, 15-year-old Kyyese.

No one was home at Ann Pettway's modest home in a working-class section of Raleigh, N.C., where dishes in the sink suggested she left in a hurry.

Neighbor Sonova Smith called Pettway a good mom of a 13-year-old son, who never mentioned having an older daughter.

"I'd like to think she's innocent," said Smith, 40.

Ann Pettway had yet to speak with law enforcement as the FBI stepped in to take control of the kidnapping case, sources told the Daily News.

The feds will take over the cold case because it crosses state lines and there are statute of limitations restrictions for state charges, the sources said. The NYPD hasn't given up its claim to the probe.

No arrests had been made in the case, which was only cracked when a suspicious Carlina began searching the Internet for signs that she was a kidnap victim.

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Kidnapped woman has Bridgeport connections
Written by The Bridgeport News
Friday, 21 January 2011 15:17

The New York Post is reporting that the woman targeted by the FBI in the kidnapping of Carlina White has Bridgeport roots.

Ann Pettway, who raised White, 23, allegedly used multiple aliases and birth dates as she traveled from Connecticut to Georgia to North Carolina.

She has a lengthy rap sheet that includes arrests for embezzlement, forgery and theft, the New York Post reported today.

The FBI attempted unsuccessfully to track Pettway down at her mother’s Bridgeport home, sources said.

White was raised in Connecticut and Georgia after she went missing on Aug. 4, 1987 after being admitted to Harlem Hospital.

With the help of the Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the NYPD, she discovered her true identity 23 years later, and last weekend had an emotional reunion with her mom, Joy White, and dad, Carl Tyson, The New York Post reported.

After her abduction, White was raised in Bridgeport and later in Georgia as Nejdra Nance. She reportedly began to suspect over the years that Pettway was not her birth mother and confirmed the truth when DNA tests revealed a match with her biological parents.

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This kidnapper was a criminal, and I heard on the news that she was a drug user and abusive to this child that she stole from her real family! Throw her in prison for life! I would like to hear more of Carlina's/Nejdra's story...Wonder when she was able to get out from under the witch's control? Did this poor girl ever feel real love from her? Sounds like the Pettway family did try to intervene when Pettway was mean to the child.

Meanwhile, new details emerged of Pettway's criminal past and troubled history.
As a troubled teen in 1977, she spent nearly a month in jail after an arrest on a larceny charge in Waterbury, Conn.
In 1991 she was charged with forgery and larceny in her hometown of Bridgeport and sentenced to three years probation.
Two years later she pleaded guilty to larceny in Wallingford, Conn., and got a suspended sentence and probation.
In 1997 she was busted for pot possession in Bridgeport, fined $100 and again put on probation.
Most recently, Pettway pleaded guilty to embezzlement for stealing $130 in cash, a pair of men's pants and a scarf from her employer, Hudson Belk, a Raleigh, NC, branch of a popular southern department store.
Carlina, who has accused Pettway of beating her with a shoe, said yesterday she was not surprised by her alleged abductor's shady past.
"It doesn't surprise me. She was always doing some bulls--t. She got arrested a couple of times when I was around," White said.
Pettway, who according to her Facebook page is a kitchen-prep cook at Shaw University in Raleigh, has variously listed her birth date on public records as 1960 or 1962, and has used at least two Social Security numbers. She has also gone by several aliases, including Annugetta Pettway and Andrea Pettway.
While her criminal past and suspicions in Carlina's kidnapping paint a portrait of a troubled life, relatives in Bridgeport and neighbors in North Carolina yesterday told a different story.
Ann Pettway's niece, who identified herself only as Kyyese, said she would often see her aunt and the cousin she knew as Nejdra at family get-togethers.
"Nejdra and Ann seemed to be so close, they were always laughing together," Kyyese said. "They were a lot alike. Ann was loud and Nejdra was quiet, but the way they handled things was the same."
Kyyese said she didn't believe the allegations against her aunt.
"Anyone who sees Nejdra's young daughter Samani says she looks just like Ann," Kyyese said outside the family's Bridgeport home.
Samani loves her grandmother and great-grandmother, Kyyese said.
"Ann spoiled Nejdra's daughter. She gives her everything she wants," Kyyese said.
North Carolina neighbor Penny Lewter also doubted the allegations.
"I'm quite surprised. I just can't believe it," she said. "Ann is a wonderful person. She's an excellent mother to her son, very protective and very loving."
Neighbor Sonova Smith said Pettway told her she moved to North Carolina to escape her crime-ridden Bridgeport neighborhood.
"She told me she moved here to start over, to start a new life," Smith said.


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You can watch a video of Carlina/Nejdra and real parents talking about the kidnapping and reunion at the link below. Carlina says that Pettway had recently miscarried and then started dressing like a nurse and hanging around the hospital...Wonder how she knew this? Did Pettway tell her, or have investigators figured this out since she found her real family?

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Here is the video.

Suspect in 1987 Infant Kidnapping Surrenders


A bizarre kidnapping case ended this weekend when a woman surrendered to the FBI to face allegations she abducted an infant 23 years ago and raised the child as her own.

Ann Pettway turned herself in to agents in Connecticut after her "daughter" Carlina White tracked down her real birth parents and was reunited with them last week, Bridgeport, Conn., police Detective Keith Bryant tells PEOPLE.

Bryant said it was his understanding Pettway was alone when she surrendered to the FBI in Stratford, Conn.

White's biological father, Carl Tyson, tells PEOPLE the arrest of Pettway is "really emotional for me."

"I would just love to speak to her, to see her and talk to her and ask her, 'Why?' That's all I want," he says. "Whatever the state or the feds, however they prosecute her, that's up to them. I would just like to ask her, 'Why?'"

An arrest warrant had been issued on Friday in North Carolina for Pettway and she was spotted the next day at a pawnshop in Bridgeport by employees who recognized her from news reports.

Pettway was wanted in the 1987 kidnapping of 19-day-old Carlina from a New York City hospital. Carlina was abducted by a phony nurse, and then raised in Bridgeport, under the name Nejdra Nance, by Pettway, according to authorities.

Around her 16th birthday, Carlina began to believe she wasn't Pettway's daughter – which Pettway then allegedly admitted. Carlina found her birth mother with the help of Web sites for missing children, and DNA tests confirmed she was indeed the baby abducted in 1987.

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Ann Pettway on the left.

HARTFORD, Connecticut -- A North Carolina woman who raised a child kidnapped from a New York hospital two decades ago was taken into custody Sunday on a parole violation charge, the FBI said.
Ann Pettway surrendered Sunday morning to the FBI and Connecticut police on a warrant from North Carolina, FBI supervisory special agent William Reiner said.
Pettway, who has family in Connecticut, was on probation because of a conviction for attempted embezzlement and wasn't allowed to leave North Carolina. She remained in custody Sunday afternoon and couldn't be reached for comment.
North Carolina officials said Friday they believed Pettway was on the run from authorities. Correction officials had tried repeatedly to contact Pettway after finding out investigators wanted to question her in the 1987 abduction of the infant, Carlina White, who's now grown and has reunited with her long-lost family.
The Department of Correction said Sunday it will seek Pettway's extradition to North Carolina.
White had long suspected Pettway wasn't her biological mother because she could never provide her with a birth certificate. No suspects were ever identified in White's disappearance from Harlem Hospital in New York. White is now 23 years old and has been living under the name Nejdra Nance.
She recently reunited with her biological family, which believes Pettway was the kidnapper.
Her parents, Joy White and Carl Tyson, said a woman who looked like a nurse had comforted them at the hospital. The girl was just 19 days old and had been admitted in the middle of the night with a high fever. Her parents left the hospital to rest and found she was missing when they came back.
Authorities are considering whether federal investigators should take the case because the statute of limitations may have expired in New York, New York Police Department chief spokesman Paul Browne said. There is no limitation in federal missing-children cases.
A woman who lives near Pettway in North Carolina, Sonova Smith, said Pettway mentioned that she had a daughter in Connecticut but had moved to Raleigh with her son. Smith and Pettway both had teenage sons who would often play together, and Smith said her neighbor seemed to be a good mother.
"She was friendly. She was kind. She loved her son," Smith said. "We talked about our boys often. She talked about family. So, it's just really been surprising."


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Surely they will turn this over to federal authorities! I can't believe that there is a statute of limitations on kidnapping in New York, or anywhere else for that matter!

I agree Lisette. I can understand a statute of limitations in civil matters but for criminal cases I do not think there should be any time limits on prosecution. I would like to read the opinions of lawmakers who think there is a reason for these limitations.

This case better go to the feds. These SOL's in different states is ridiculous. I am very surprised that the State of NY would have this statute.

I was just thinking about this case. Pettway evidently took Carlina back to Bridgeport which was not that far from New York. (I think I read something like 52 miles.) With all the publicity about the kidnapped baby, didn't her family have any suspicions about her? They said that everyone kept saying how the baby looked nothing like her. And, she didn't have anyone with her at the birth, she didn't call them to say that she was about to give birth...I just think that at least one of them had to have suspected her of this kidnapping.

I wish we had an emotioncom for "swept under the carpet" as IMHO that is exactly what happened here.

Carlina White's "Mother" Ann Pettway Getting Charged

Ann PettwayAfter turning herself in yesterday 44-year-old Ann Pettway—the woman accused of kidnapping Carlina White 23 years ago—is heading to Manhattan Federal court today where she is expected to finally face federal charges for the case. Though a manhunt started Saturday for Pettway after she was spotted in a pawn shop, Pettway actually ended up turned herself into the feds after seeing herself on television.
Meanwhile, the Post has been digging into Pettway's life and has some more information to further the theory that White was kidnapped to make up for a miscarried baby. According to a cousin "at the time, she was dating a big-time drug dealer, which, back then, it was a status thing to date someone like that in this neighborhood. What I think happened was, she lost her child and got [White] as a means of holding onto this guy." Also, the Pettway clan in Bridgeport, Connecticut, was apparently somewhat famous for being bad. "They were everywhere, and they ran the crack and coke trade on Stratford Avenue in the '80s and the '90s," a retired police sargeant told the paper, referring to a notoriously seedy strip.

Pettway is expected to appear in court later this afternoon.

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How sad that this child was stolen and taken into such an environment!

Suspect in 1987 Infant Kidnapping Confesses
BY NICOLE WEISENSEE EGAN AND DIANE HERBST

Update Monday January 24, 2011 01:15 PM EST
Originally posted Monday January 24, 2011 12:45 PM EST
Alleged kidnapper Ann Pettway told the FBI Sunday that she stole Carlina White as an infant from Harlem Hospital 23 years ago because she had several miscarriages and feared she'd never have children of her own, according to a criminal complaint against her filed earlier Monday.

"Pettway is sorry and she knows that she has caused a lot of pain," the complaint states.

In her confession, Pettway offered details of how she took Carlina. She says she saw the 19-day-old baby at the hospital on Aug. 4, 1987, slipped into her room a few hours later and took her.

"When no one stopped Pettway she took the victim with her on a train to Pettway's home in Bridgeport, Conn.," the complaint says. "She told her friends and family members that the victim was her child."

As Carlina, who then became known as Nejdra Nance, grew up, she lived with Ann Pettway at times and at other times with Pettway's mother, Mary, who also lives in Bridgeport, according to Ann's confession.

She says she tried to create a fake birth certificate for Carlina but was never able to create one that appeared real.

Pettway faces federal kidnapping charges. Three of Pettway's family members were with her in Manhattan Federal Court on Monday to lend their support.

Robert Baum, Pettway's public defender, tells PEOPLE he first met his new client Monday morning and she was tearful during the interview. "She's pretty upset, but she understands what's going on," Baum says. "She became aware of the police chasing after her because of press accounts."

The attorney confirmed she turned herself in and says she faces life in prison. Pettway will not have to enter a plea at the arraignment later Monday and he says he will not ask for bail.

Asked about her confession to the FBI, Baum says, "It's alleged she made those statements. I will investigate her medical history, the miscarriages. She cares deeply about Carlina. She feels badly. She is very upset. She has expressed concern about her family, especially Carlina. She understands the gravity of the situation."

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I wonder about the 13-year-old son...Did she deliver him? I guess that will be checked out. And where is he now?

Carlina White
Abducted Baby Reunited With Parents 23 Years Later
Written by NewsOne Staff on January 20, 2011 10:56
Carlina White today. Inset: White as an infant in 1987.

New York– A 23-year-old woman who was snatched from a New York City hospital as a 3-week-old infant has been reunited with her parents after tracking down baby pictures of herself on a missing children’s website.

Allen said Carlina Renae White “called us [and] she said things aren’t the way I think they should be,” Allen said. “We … followed the information she gave us, put together the facts with the NYPD and today she has been reunited with her mom and her dad.”

The woman’s mother is ecstatic.

Carl Tyson and Joy White in 1987.

“”It’s a wonderful feeling. Now I can sleep,” Joy White told the New York Post after meeting her grown-up daughter over the weekend. “I’ve been worried for all these years. I never took her picture off my dresser. I never gave up looking for her.”

Carlina White was not yet a month old when she was kidnapped on Aug. 4, 1987. She had spiked a 104-degree fever, and her worried parents took her to Harlem Hospital, where she was admitted, the Post and the New York Daily News reported today.

Read more at AOLNEWS.com

Tags: Good News, Kidnapped Girl Reunited 23 Years Later
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Abducted Baby Reunited With Parents 23 Years Later

New York– A 23-year-old woman who was snatched from a New York City hospital as a 3-week-old infant has been reunited with her parents after tracking down baby pictures of herself on a missing children’s website.

Allen said Carlina Renae White “called us [and] she said things aren’t the way I think they should be,” Allen said. “We … followed the information she gave us, put together the facts with the NYPD and today she has been reunited with her mom and her dad.”

The woman’s mother is ecstatic.

“”It’s a wonderful feeling. Now I can sleep,” Joy White told the New York Post after meeting her grown-up daughter over the weekend. “I’ve been worried for all these years. I never took her picture off my dresser. I never gave up looking for her.”

Carlina White was not yet a month old when she was kidnapped on Aug. 4, 1987. She had spiked a 104-degree fever, and her worried parents took her to Harlem Hospital, where she was admitted, the Post and the New York Daily News reported today.

Abducted Baby Reunited With Parents 23 Years Later
New York– A 23-year-old woman who was snatched from a New York City hospital as a 3-week-old infant has been reunited with her parents after tracking down baby pictures of herself on a missing children’s website.

Allen said Carlina Renae White “called us [and] she said things aren’t the way I think they should be,” Allen said. “We … followed the information she gave us, put together the facts with the NYPD and today she has been reunited with her mom and her dad.”

The woman’s mother is ecstatic.

“”It’s a wonderful feeling. Now I can sleep,” Joy White told the New York Post after meeting her grown-up daughter over the weekend. “I’ve been worried for all these years. I never took her picture off my dresser. I never gave up looking for her.”

Carlina White was not yet a month old when she was kidnapped on Aug. 4, 1987. She had spiked a 104-degree fever, and her worried parents took her to Harlem Hospital, where she was admitted, the Post and the New York Daily News reported today.

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Grand jury indicts woman in '87 baby abduction

New York (CNN) -- A woman suspected of snatching an infant from a New York hospital in 1987 has been indicted on federal kidnapping charges, according to court papers released Thursday.
Ann Pettway was charged with one count of kidnapping in the abduction of Carlina Renae White, now 23, who was reunited with her biological mother in January. According to court documents filed in the case last month, Pettway admitted to taking the girl from a Harlem hospital after suffering several miscarriages.
The grand jury said Pettway "willfully and knowingly" seized the baby, according to a copy of the indictment from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Pettway turned herself in last month at the FBI office in Bridgeport, Connecticut, FBI spokesman William Reiner said. She faces up to 20 years to life in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 if convicted.
White tracked down her birth family in early January, saying she had had a nagging feeling all her life that she was brought up by a family to which she didn't belong. Ernie Allen, president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said White's suspicions grew after the woman who raised her could not produce a birth certificate for her.
White's mother, Joy White, told the New York Post last month that she last saw her daughter when she was 19 days old. She took her to a Harlem hospital on August 4, 1987, because the baby had a high fever, a New York police official said. Carlina was admitted to the hospital, and her mother went home to rest. When she returned, the baby was gone.
"That was a big part of my heart that was just ripped apart," Carlina White's biological father, Carl Tyson, told the Post regarding her disappearance.
Pettway is scheduled for a hearing on February 24.

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May 14, 2012 10:57 AM

By Edecio Martinez Topics Daily Blotter

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - Ann Pettway, the woman who admitted kidnapping a newborn from a New York City hospital more than two decades ago and raised the girl as her own, will reportedly be sentenced in July. CNN reports that her sentenced date, which was initially set for today has been moved to July 6.

During her trial, the 51-year-old recounted how she took a train from her home in Bridgeport, Conn. to Harlem hospital in 1987 and scooped up Carlina White, a 3-week-old baby who had been brought to the emergency room by her parents.

According to court documents, the FBI said Pettway took the baby after her own childbearing efforts failed.

As part of her plea bargain, prosecutors agreed to recommend between 10 and 12 1/2 years in prison, although the actual term will be set by a judge. CNN reports that she may face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The mystery of the kidnapping was solved by Carlina herself, who had come to be suspicious about her own identity as she aged into adulthood.

After growing up in Bridgeport under the name Nejdra Nance, White eventually took to browsing the website of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for clues to her identity. After matching a photo of herself with one on the site, she tracked down her true mother. The two reunited in January of 2011.

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Woman gets 12 years for snatching baby from New York hospital in 1987
Published July 30, 2012

NEW YORK – A woman who snatched a newborn from a New York hospital more than two decades ago and raised the child as her own has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Ann Pettway, of Raleigh, N.C., was sentenced Monday in Manhattan.
She pleaded guilty in February to kidnapping, saying she took a train from her Connecticut home to Harlem Hospital in 1987. While there, she said, she scooped up Carlina White, a 3-week-old who was brought to the emergency room with a fever.
Carlina's birth mother, Joy White, says Pettway robbed her of 23 years with her child.
The case was solved by Carlina, who became increasingly suspicious of her own identity and matched a photograph of herself with one on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website.

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Kidnapping of Baby Draws 12-Year Term

A woman who audaciously kidnapped a 3-week-old girl from a Manhattan hospital on a summer day a quarter-century ago and raised her to adulthood was sentenced on Monday to 12 years in prison.

Carlina White as an infant. She was raised by Ms. Pettway into adulthood.
“This was not a crime of greed, this was not a crime of vengeance,” Judge P. Kevin Castel of Federal District Court in Manhattansaid in imposing the sentence on the woman, Ann Pettway. “But it was an act of selfishness, a crime of selfishness” that he said “inflicted a parent’s worst nightmare on a couple.”

The sentence drew a muted response from a packed courtroom populated with friends and relatives on both sides of the harrowing case.

In terse remarks before sentencing, Ms. Pettway, 50, apologized to the family of the kidnapped girl, Carlina White, and said, “I am here today to right my wrong and ask for forgiveness.”

Ms. White, who is now 25 and lives in Atlanta, did not attend the hearing and has distanced herself from the case. According to Ms. Pettway’s lawyers, she has a movie deal.

The parents, Joy White and Carl Tyson, who separated a year after the kidnapping, made emotional pleas for a prolonged prison term.

Lamenting how she was able to spend just 19 days with her daughter when she could “bathe her, wash her hair and then get her a bottle of milk and rock her to sleep,” an emotional Ms. White said that after the kidnapping she could not eat or sleep and sought psychiatric counseling. “I’m broken into a million pieces,” she said.

When he spoke, Mr. Tyson glared at Ms. Pettway and told her, “For 23 years, Ann, you had me suffering.” He said, “What you should get is 23 years, what you took away from me.”

In February, Ms. Pettway pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping, under a plea agreement carrying a sentencing guideline of about 10 to 12 ½ years. The probation department recalculated the guideline at 168 to 210 months, putting the judge’s sentence below the range. The maximum sentence for kidnapping is life in prison.

Ms. Pettway’s lawyers asked for 10 years 1 month, while prosecutors argued that the judge should exceed the guideline and order a sentence of 20 years.

Afterward, Ms. White said she was content with the outcome, adding, “It’s not going to make up for the time that my daughter’s been gone.”

Mr. Tyson, however, said he was dissatisfied. When he looked at Ms. Pettway, he said: “It was really hurting. I wanted to reach over and really strangle her.”

Both parents said they did not know what punishment Carlina White wanted for Ms. Pettway.

Among the relatives of Ms. Pettway in the gallery was her 14-year-old son, whose father, her lawyers said, is a paraplegic and frequently hospitalized.

In its sentencing memorandum, Ms. Pettway’s lawyers argued that Ms. Pettway “provided a good home” and that the abduction “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.”

They said that she had been severely depressed over several stillbirths and miscarriages, and that she had been physically and emotionally abused as a child. They said her own mother beat her with belts and extension cords.

Prosecutors, in their memorandum, underscored the gravity of child kidnapping and pointed out that Ms. Pettway had been convicted of a number of crimes, including attempted embezzlement in 2010, when she stole pants and a belt from a department store where she worked, as well as forgery, larceny and marijuana possession. They said she told the probation department that she used cocaine from 1983 to 2005 and smoked marijuana every day until she was in her 30s.

Wearing a nurse’s dress, Ms. Pettway kidnapped the child from the 17th floor of Harlem Hospital on Aug. 4, 1987. The 19-day-old infant, who had a high fever, had been brought to the hospital by her worried parents.

Ms. Pettway took her home on the train to Bridgeport, Conn., and renamed her Nejdra Nance. In 1998, when Ms. White was 10, Ms. Pettway gave birth to a son, and the two were raised as brother and sister.

As she grew up, Ms. White wondered why she did not look like Ms. Pettway, and began to suspect that she had grown up enclosed in a lie.

It was Ms. White herself who ultimately solved the mystery of her true identity. When Ms. White became pregnant as a teenager, she asked Ms. Pettway for a copy of her birth certificate so she could get prenatal care. Ms. Pettway said that she did not have one and that she had received her from a woman who abused drugs.

In December 2010, though, when Ms. White was living in Atlanta with her own daughter, she consulted the Web site of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and found a photograph evocative of her own baby pictures. She was put in touch with Joy White, and the police were contacted. DNA tests confirmed that she was the daughter of Mr. Tyson and Ms. White.

The reunion between Carlina White and her parents attracted broad news attention, though the relationship among the three has been turbulent.

A search for Ms. Pettway ended when Ms. Pettway was recognized in a Connecticut pawnshop; she turned herself in to federal authorities in late January of last year.

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This was an interesting article from 2011 that I had not seen:

Split Leaves Carlina White's Mother 'Heartbroken' Again
Feb 8, 2011

Sorrow has replaced happiness a second time for a mother recently reunited with her daughter who was snatched from a New York hospital 23 years ago and raised by another woman.

Joy White met Carlina White, the daughter she feared was lost forever, in a joyous reunion last month. But the relationship has become complicated. Carlina White, now 23, has become distant and is asking questions about money related to her disappearance, according to NBC's "Today" show.

"Everything was great," the mother said on the program today. "I was on such of a high when I first reunited with my daughter. ... I was floating in air I was so happy. And that moment was so great."

But after spending four days in New York, where her biological mother lives, the younger White went back to Atlanta, "Today" said. White says she believes her daughter is suffering from an identity crisis, which has left her "heartbroken."

"I want my daughter back. I want her here, and I want her to spend time with me and the
family," White said. "It's like we're two strangers. We don't know each other."

An emotional White added: "She's with that family, and that's all she knows. I'm her mother, and it hurts not to have a relationship."

The cold case unraveled last month as DNA tests confirmed that the woman raised in Connecticut as Nejdra Nance was really Carlina White.

The woman who raised her, Ann Pettway, of Raleigh, N.C., has been held without bail on charges of kidnapping. She is accused of posing as a nurse and taking the 3-week-old Carlina from Harlem Hospital in 1987 after her efforts to have a child failed.

Joy White said her daughter asked about a 1992 settlement from a lawsuit against the hospital, reported to be $750,000. White and Carlina's father each took about $163,000 and put the rest in a trust for their missing daughter if she was found before age 21, "Today" said. All of the money, though, is now gone.

"We don't have the money," White said. "We both had to live. ... At the time things was really rocky with me, as far as a living situation. And I have two other kids, a son and a daughter ... and I had to take care of myself."

Her daughter also asked about a $10,000 reward that was offered for her return and won't give interviews without getting paid, according to "Today."

"I'm disappointed because this was a miracle that happened," White said. "And it really hurts me that it's about money."

Carlina White's father, meanwhile, told CBS' "The Early Show" that he is in constant touch with her.

Carl Tyson said they text each other every day and talk every three days by phone. He told his daughter, "Daddy's gotta hear you on the third day. I gotta hear that voice!"

Tyson told CBS he hopes Pettway spends the same number of years behind bars as he did without his daughter.

"She took 23 from me, so she needs 23."

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Pettway apologized, saying she was "deeply sorry for what I have done" and sought to "right my wrong and to ask for forgiveness."

Carl Tyson, the biological father, glared at Pettway, saying: "You hurt me really bad."

Joy White, the mother, said her daughter had found her but: "I still haven't found my daughter."

She said she "can't change how my daughter feels" when she talks about Pettway's relatives as if they are her own.

"My daughter is here, but she's not home yet," she said.

Outside court, Tyson said the sentence "should have been longer," but White said she was satisfied.

"If they gave her 200 years, it's still not going to make up for the time my daughter was gone," she said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea L. Surratt said Pettway told "complicated lies" for 23 years.

In court papers, she challenged Pettway's lawyers' contention that she provided a "stable, loving and happy home," saying Pettway was convicted of five crimes while Carlina was in her custody and had confessed to cocaine use from 1983 through 2005.

In a letter to the judge, Pettway apologized, blaming untreated psychological disorders from her failed pregnancies.

"It may not sound correct on paper but I am hopelessly SORRY," her handwritten note said.

White has described encountering Pettway on the day her daughter disappeared, dressed like a nurse. "She came up to me and said to me, `Don't cry. Your daughter is going to be OK.'"

The case was solved by Carlina herself.

As she grew up in Connecticut under the name Nejdra Nance, the girl became increasingly suspicious of her own identity. Pettway ultimately told her a part-truth, admitting she was someone else's daughter but claiming she had been willingly given away by a drug addict.

Carlina White said she browsed the website of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for clues to her identity. After matching a photo of herself with one on the site, she tracked down her true mother and they reunited in January 2011. A DNA test confirmed they were mother and child.

Joy White declined to comment about Carlina White's absence from court Monday.

In court papers, defense lawyers Robert Baum and Sabrina Shroff called Pettway "broken and severely depressed."

The lawyers said Carlina White declined to speak at the sentencing because she didn't want to go back to court and felt she had done enough work finding her biological parents.

They also noted that she is represented by counsel and has a movie project in the works.

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New York (CNN) -- A woman who admitted to stealing a 19-day-old infant from a Manhattan hospital in 1987 was sentenced Monday to 12 years in prison.
Ann Pettway, who pleaded guilty in February to one count of kidnapping, expressed remorse in a brief statement to the federal court in Manhattan.
"I would like to apologize to the family," Pettway told U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel.
"I am deeply sorry for what I've done. If they don't accept it, it's understandable," said Pettway, adding, "I'm here today to right my wrong and ask for forgiveness."
According to prosecutors, the parents of the baby girl, named Carlina Renae White, had taken her to Harlem Hospital on August 4, 1987, because she had a fever. Early the following day, hospital personnel discovered the baby was gone.
For 23 years Pettway raised the girl under another name and as her own child, prosecutors said.
In January 2010, when the victim sought to get prenatal care during her own pregnancy, she had difficulty getting a birth certificate from Pettway, prosecutors said. The victim became suspicious and contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. DNA confirmed she was Carlina White, the daughter of Carl Tyson and Joy White.
Pettway turned herself in to the FBI in Bridgeport, Connecticut, shortly after the victim, now in her mid-20s, was reunited with her birth parents. Pettway, now 50, told authorities she took the baby because she had suffered two stillborn births, one just months before the abduction.
The birth parents both read statements Monday during Pettway's sentencing hearing.
"I never had a chance to put my daughter on a school bus," said Carl Tyson, making direct eye contact with Pettway. "What they should give you is 23 years for what you took from me."
A teary-eyed Joy White told a packed courtroom, "I only spent 19 days with (her daughter) from birth, and those were the most memorable days of my life."
Both parents admit to difficulties trying to get to know their now-adult daughter.
Judge Castel recommended Pettway serve her sentence in facilities in Danbury, Connecticut, or Tallahassee, Florida, where she could participate in mental health programs.
In addition to 12 years in prison, Pettway was also senteneced to 3 years probation and a $100 special assessment fee.
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Since when does kidnapping not get a person life in prison? I wonder what name Carlina is using now that she knows the truth. Lisette I did read that article from 2011. Sounds like Carlina is very angry (with good reason). However the money part of that article makes a person think Carlina is all about showing her the money.

In other KeKe (Palmer) news, the young actress will be starring in the TV movie Abducted: The Carlina White Story. You can see the movie Saturday, October 6, at 8 pm ET/PT on Lifetime.

Here’s the movie synopsis according to Broadway World:


The film is based on a remarkable true story of the kidnapping of Carlina White (Palmer), who was abducted as an infant by Ann Pettway (Ellis) from a New York hospital and solved her own kidnapping and reunited with her biological parents 23 years later. The case is reported to be the first known infant abduction from a New York hospital. On July 30th of this year, Pettway was sentenced in a New York court to 12 years in prison for kidnapping Carlina.

Immediately following the movie at 10 pm ET/PT, Lifetime will premiere the hour-long documentary, Beyond the Headlines: Carlina White, featuring interviews with Carlina telling her own story, as well as her birthparents and the family of her kidnapper as they offer their own perspectives about the case.

I can’t wait to see KeKe in this movie. She’s acting alongside one all-star cast that includes Sherri Shepherd (The View) and Aunjanue Ellis (The Help).

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Carlina White movie “Abducted” to air on Lifetime

When the story of Carlina White — the baby stolen from Harlem Hospital in 1987 and raised in Bridgeport by Ann Pettway — broke early last year, it read like a movie script.

So, naturally, Lifetime Network announced that it would turn the tale into one of its signature ripped from the headlines movies.

“Abducted: The Carlina White Story,” will air on Saturday, Oct. 6.

The movie stars Aunjanue Ellis (“The Help”) as Pettway, and Keke Palmer (“True Jackson, VP”) as Carlina, whom Pettway raised as Nejdra “Netty” Nance. The movie also stars “The View” co-host Sherri Shepherd.

Immediately following the movie, Lifetime will premiere the hour-long documentary, ”Beyond the Headlines: Carlina White,” featuring interviews with Carlina telling her own story, as well as her birth parents and the family of her kidnapper as they offer their own perspectives about the case.

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