Kidnapping of Carlina White

Kidnapping of Carlina White
Carlina White
Born Carlina Renae White
July 15, 1987 (1987-07-15) (age 24)
New York City, USA
Disappeared August 4, 1987 (aged 19 days)
Harlem Hospital
Status Reunited in January 2011
Nationality American
Other names Nejdra Nance
Alma mater Warren Harding High School
Known for Child abductee
Children Samani (daughter)
Parents Carl Tyson and Joy White

Carlina Renae White (born July 15, 1987) is an American woman who solved her own kidnapping case and was reunited with her biological parents 23 years after being abducted as an infant from the Harlem Hospital Center in New York City. The case represents the longest known gap in a non-parental abduction where the victim was reunited with the family in the United States.[1]

Contents

Abduction

Harlem Hospital Center in Manhattan

Carlina was 19 days old when her parents, Joy White and Carl Tyson, took her to the hospital with a fever of 103 °F (39.4 °C) on August 4, 1987. A woman reportedly dressed as a nurse had comforted the parents at the hospital, but was not a hospital employee. The woman had been seen around the hospital for three weeks prior to the abduction.[2] The baby disappeared during the night. At the time, the hospital had no video surveillance.[3][4] The baby was receiving intravenous antibiotics when someone removed the IV line and took her between 2:30 am and 3:55 am.[2] A guard said a woman matching the suspect's description left the hospital at 3:30 am, and that no infant was visible, although the baby could have been concealed in the heavyset woman's smock.[5]

The case was the first known infant abduction from a New York hospital.[6] A $10,000 reward was offered by the city of New York in 1987 for the return of Carlina.[7] Flyers with the baby's picture were distributed nationwide, with no success in locating her. Her parents filed a $100 million suit against the hospital in 1989,[2] and obtained a $750,000 settlement in 1992.[1] Carlina's parents separated the year after the abduction and remarried.[8]

Life as Nejdra Nance

Carlina White was raised as "Nejdra Nance" by Ann Pettway in Bridgeport, Connecticut, just 45 miles from where her parents had lived.[1] White attended Thomas Hooker School and graduated from Warren Harding High School in Bridgeport.[9] Pettway and White later moved to Atlanta, Georgia. White grew suspicious during her teens that Pettway was not her birth mother, because of their lack of physical resemblance and her inability to obtain documents such as a Social Security card.[4] When White asked to see her birth certificate, Pettway told her that she did not have one because a drug abuser had left White in her care; Pettway had tried to forge a certificate, but was unable to create one that looked genuine.[10] At age 23, White turned to sites 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. She called the center's hotline and was able to contact her birth family.[4] DNA profiling confirmed in January 2011 that she was the missing Carlina White.[11]

Investigation

In 1987, NYPD detectives questioned a woman in Baltimore, whom witnesses had identified as having been seen in the hospital, without apparent result.[12] After the confirmation that Nejdra Nance was really Carlina White, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began a search for Ann Pettway. The statute of limitations for the state kidnapping law had expired in New York, but there is no statute of limitations for the federal law on kidnapping.[13] 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.[14][15] Pettway, who has not yet been charged with the kidnapping, has defended herself as a good mother. 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."[4]

Pettway turned herself into the FBI office at Bridgeport on the morning of January 23, 2011.[16] She had driven from North Carolina to Connecticut to arrange for her biological son to be taken care of. Pettway told federal investigators that she kidnapped White after enduring several miscarriages because of the stress over whether "she would ever be able to be a parent." Pettway did not enter a plea at her arraignment at the U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan, where she faces between 20 years to life in prison for kidnapping.[10]

See also

Scale of justice 2.svg Criminal justice portal

References

  1. ^ a b c Inbar, Michael (January 21, 2011). "Abducted girl’s aunt: Kidnapper 'destroyed my family'". MSNBC. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41191254/ns/today-today_people/. Retrieved January 21, 2011. 
  2. ^ a b c Tomb, Jeffrey (August 12, 1989). "Carlina's parents still hold hope". New York Daily News (The Spokesman-Review): p. G1. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=E-MRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=y-8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6733,1520620&dq=kidnap+carlina-white. Retrieved January 21, 2011. 
  3. ^ "Woman kidnapped in 1987 reunites with NY family". Associated Press. January 21, 2011. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hVM5Jdo_e1zZo9_b4HrJYtLJu8EQ?docId=8614038e47a347f3842a2f2db282c058. Retrieved January 21, 2011. 
  4. ^ a b c d Canning, Andrea; Hopper, Jessica (January 21, 2011). "Police hunt woman who raised kidnapped child". ABC News. pp. 1–3. http://abcnews.go.com/US/police-hunt-anne-pettway-woman-raised-kidnapped-carlina/story?id=12729138. Retrieved January 21, 2011. 
  5. ^ Purdum, Todd S. (August 5, 1987). "20-day-old infant with a fever is abducted from Harlem Hospital". The New York Times. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40712FD3D5E0C768CDDA10894DF484D81. Retrieved January 21, 2011. 
  6. ^ Rosenberg, Rebecca; Bain, Jennifer; Fredericks, Bob (January 21, 2011). "FBI hunts woman who kidnapped baby as victim, 23, begins life with parents". New York Post. http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/lives_hunts_hosp_shattered_napper_XNrZLaKH8CMXnBxiCHFiWJ. Retrieved January 21, 2011. 
  7. ^ Rivera, Elaine (August 27, 1987). "City offers reward for baby kidnapper". Newsday: p. 36. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/newsday/access/104553310.html?dids=104553310:104553310&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Aug+27%2C+1987&author=Elaine+Rivera&pub=Newsday+%28Combined+editions%29&desc=City+Offers+Reward+For+Baby+Kidnaper&pqatl=google. Retrieved January 21, 2011. (subscription required)
  8. ^ "Carlina Renae White". The Charley Project. Archived from the original on October 13, 2009. http://projectjason.org/forums/index.php?action=printpage;topic=7131.0. Retrieved January 21, 2011. 
  9. ^ Lambeck, Linda Conner; Mayko, Michael P. (January 21, 2011). "Reports: Former Bridgeport woman who raised kidnapped girl fled North Carolina home". Connecticut Post. http://m.ctpost.com/connpost/db_43481/contentdetail.htm;jsessionid=2468F82E7D9D5C691245236BCDD70D70?contentguid=6DBtXbGt&detailindex=1&pn=0&ps=4&full=true. Retrieved January 23, 2011. 
  10. ^ a b Canning, Andrea; Hopper, Jessica (January 24, 2011). "Ann Pettway's Confession About Kidnapping Carlina White". ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/US/ann-pettway-woman-raised-carlina-white-face-kidnapping/story?id=12746441. Retrieved February 5, 2011. 
  11. ^ "US woman reunited with family after solving own baby-snatch". BBC World Service. January 21, 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2011/01/110121_carlina_white_wt_hs.shtml. Retrieved August 27, 2011. 
  12. ^ "Police Go to Baltimore To Interview Suspect". The New York Times. August 7, 1987. http://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/07/nyregion/police-go-to-baltimore-to-interview-suspect.html. Retrieved January 21, 2011. 
  13. ^ "FBI hunt for 'fake' mother accused of kidnapping baby 23 years ago as real parents are reunited with their child". Daily Mail. January 21, 2011. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1349350/Carlina-White-FBI-hunt-fake-mother-accused-kidnapping-baby-23-years-ago.html. Retrieved January 21, 2011. 
  14. ^ Jabali-Nash, Naimah (January 21, 2011). "Carlina White Update: Ann Pettway Declared Probation Absconder, Sought by Authorities". Associated Press. CBS News. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20029259-504083.html. Retrieved January 21, 2011. 
  15. ^ Gendar, Alison; Goldner, Dave (January 21, 2011). "Arrest warrant issued for Ann Pettway, woman accused of kidnapping Carlina White from NY hospital". New York Daily News. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/01/21/2011-01-21_arrest_warrant_issued_for_ann_pettway_woman_accused_of_kidnapping_carlina_white_.html. Retrieved January 21, 2011. 
  16. ^ Candiotti, Susan (23 January 2011). "Suspect in 1987 kidnapping surrenders to police". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/23/new.york.kidnapping.suspect/. Retrieved 23 January 2011. 

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