Woman finds out she was kidnapped after 23 years
A woman who snatched a baby from a New York City hospital in 1987, then raised the child as her own for more than two decades, has pleaded guilty to a kidnapping charge at a federal courthouse in Manhattan.
Ann Pettway, (51), recounted how she scooped up Carlina White, a three-week-old baby who had been brought to the emergency room in Harlem Hospital. Prosecutors agreed to recommend between 10 and 12 years in prison, but Carlina's natural mother, Joy White, later said she felt this would be too light a punishment.
"I've lost 23 years of being with my daughter," she said.
As Carlina grew up, she became suspicious of her identity, and matched a photo of herself to one from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
- David B Caruso in New York
Irish Independent
