23 Years Later: Abducted Daughter Reunited With Parents

  • Share
  • Read Later
Joy White holding a picture of her daughter Carlina White with her granddaughter Nevannah Thomas, 2. After 23-years Carlina finds her real mom who was kidnapped from Harlem Hospital.

Mariela Lombard / NY Daily News via Getty Images

When 9-day-old Carlina White had a fever on August 4, 1987, her concerned parents took her to the emergency room. Twenty-three years later, just last weekend, they were reunited with their daughter for the first time since that hospital visit.

Joy White and Carl Tyson, the infants’ parents, never knew what happened to their daughter that day. They believe a mystery woman disguised as a nurse was responsible for the kidnapping.

(More on TIME.com: See the Top 10 Crime Stories for 2010.)

They established a trust fund for their daughter with the money they won in a lawsuit against New York City for the Harlem Hospital’s tragic mistake.

Even after offering a $10,000 reward, the couple heard nothing for decades of their missing child’s fate.

Meanwhile, Carlina was raised in Atlanta by way of Bridgeport, Ct. In Atlanta, she was given a new name, Nejdra Nance. She grew up suspicious of her origins, lacking a birth certificate and not resembling any of her supposed biological family members.

(More on TIME.com: See the Chinese father who’s found 7 kidnapped children.)

After deciding to search her birth year on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s website, she recognized a baby from the photos in her Georgia home.  The center connected her with her birth mother, Joy White, finally bringing a happy ending to the family. (via ABC)