Teen figured out she was kidnapped as infant – and might be living with abductor
An 18-year-old who was kidnapped as an infant had discovered months ago the truth that she was living with her abductor under an assumed name, court documents show.
An arrest warrant affidavit filed in the case Wednesday says the girl, living under the name Alexis Manigo in South Carolina, knew a year and a half ago that she’d been kidnapped as a baby from a Florida hospital and was listed as a missing person.
The girl’s real name was Kamiyah Mobley. After her admission to a friend last summer in the town of Walterboro, South Carolina, where she lived, court documents say an anonymous tip was received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which contacted authorities.
Mobley was just eight hours old when a woman dressed as a nurse took her from her mother and disappeared. The abduction created a massive search, but Mobley was never found.
After the tips to the center, detectives with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office in Florida obtained a cheek swab from Mobley. The DNA tests confirmed her identity, and Gloria Williams, 51, was arrested on a kidnapping charge.
After years of heartache, Kamiyah’s birth parents prepared to celebrate. Her paternal grandmother called it the day the family had “hoped and prayed” would come.
Kamiyah’s birth mother, Shanara Mobley, remained too overwhelmed with emotion to comment.
“This really is a joyous outcome,” said one former Jacksonville County investigator who had been involved in the case early on, according to First Coast News.
But for the abducted child, now an 18-year-old woman, a world of conflicting emotions and glaring attention was just beginning.
The only mother she had ever known, was arrested on charges of kidnapping and interference with custody. In a stark South Carolina jailhouse courtroom last Friday, the teenager wept and called out “Momma” after Williams quietly acknowledged to a judge the crimes alleged against her.
Amid the tearful scene, the judge allowed the teenager to walk behind her desk and up to the window so that she and Williams could hold hands through the screen, WJXT News reported.
“I love you, Mom,” the girl told Williams.
On Jan. 10, detectives from Florida went to Walterboro and obtained a birth certificate and Social Security card from the high school Mobley attended, and found both to be fraudulent, according to the documents. The Social Security number listed on the card was for a man in Virginia who had died in 1983.
“Alexis was a child and she relied on Gloria Williams with regards to any documents in existence,” said Mobley’s attorney, Justin Bamberg. “Kids don’t take care of that kind of stuff, a Social Security card or any type of birth certificate.”
The affidavit also says Williams had admitted to associates that she took Mobley from a Jacksonville, Florida, hospital and raised her in South Carolina.
That admission led to another anonymous tip to the center, the documents show.
“The … suspect stated that she renamed the victim as Alexis Kelli Manigo, and claims her as her daughter,” the affidavit reads.
Williams is now being held without bail in a Jacksonville jail, and also faces a charge of interference with custody in addition to kidnapping. There is no attorney listed for her yet.
Mobley’s attorney said she is extremely upset about the loss of the only mother she has ever known, but also wants to get to know her biological family.
“She forgives her, doesn’t hold any ill will towards her,” Bamberg said of Williams. “She doesn’t love this woman any less than she did before.”
The Washington Post contributed.
This story was originally published January 19, 2017 at 1:07 PM with the headline "Teen figured out she was kidnapped as infant – and might be living with abductor."