Woman kidnapped as a baby says life is ‘richer’ for it
Woman kidnapped as a baby says life is ‘richer’ for it
A woman who was snatched as a baby 26 years ago and raised by her kidnapper has revealed that her life is all the better for it.
Netty Nance, who was just 19 days old when she was stolen from a Harlem Hospital, was reunited with her real mother in 2011, having managed to solve the case on her own.
However, rather than harboring feelings of anger and bitterness about the deception, she says that she wouldn’t change what happened.
Netty told the Daily Mirror: ‘Now I have two moms and two dads and my life is richer now because of that. I feel as though everything happens for a reason.
‘I wouldn’t be me, if it wasn’t for what I’ve been through, and I’m happy. I wouldn’t change what happened to me.’
Netty’s remarkable story begins in 1988 in New York.
Her real mom was Joy White, who gave birth to her at 16 and called her Carlina. But after just 19 days Carlina developed a fever so Joy and the father, Carl Tyson, 22, took her to Harlem Hospital.
The kidnapper, Ann Pettway, struck when they went home to collect some belongings, Carlina having been left in a cot.
Ann, from Connecticut, had been posing as a nurse on the maternity ward for many weeks – and so effectively that many of the nurses there thought she was genuine.
She had recently had a miscarriage and she saw Carlina as a chance for happiness.
Joy and Carl were horrified when they discovered their baby was missing.
A massive police hunt got underway, but despite wanted posters for a woman matching Ann’s description, the crime remained unsolved for the next 23 years.
Carlina was renamed Nejdra Nance, which became Netty after a move to Atlanta, Georgia.
