After 23 long years, a mother is reunited with her daughter who was abducted from the hospital as a baby. INSIDE EDITION has the remarkable story.
An overjoyed mom is getting to know her daughter, who was kidnapped when she was just a newborn, 23 years ago.
Carlina's mom said in a NY Post video, "I just always believed she would find me."
Carlina said in a NY Post video, "This is always what I wanted."
The heartbreaking story begins on August 4th, 1987, when baby Carlina White was snatched from a New York City hospital by a stranger posing as a nurse. It was front page news as Carlina's parents begged the kidnapper to return their baby.
INSIDE EDITION spoke to Carlina's mom, Joy White, in 1991. She was still mourning the loss of her daughter and says, "I just hope that whoever has her is giving her the love that I would have given her and take care of her."
She was taken to Bridgeport, Connecticut, 45 miles away. She was renamed Nejdra Nance,where she says she was abused by the woman who took her, and never felt that she belonged.
Carlina cracked the case herself by going on the website of The Center for Missing and Exploited Children. She was shocked to find her baby photo, as well as a composite of how she would look at age 19. There was an uncanny resemblance to her own face.
The Center for Missing and Exploited Children tells us what happened next, "She called us, we reached out to the New York Police Department who has been investigating her disapearance since 1987, and NYPD took a DNA sample and alerted her and us that she was in fact Carlina White."
Now the front page of The New York Post reads, "Found!"
Our INSIDE EDITION's Les Trent reports, "Now Carlina and her parents are here at the Essex House Hotel in midtown Manhattan. Inside, they're sharing meals and catching up on the decades that they were forced to spend apart."
Carlina's parents, who broke up years ago, can hardly believe that their daughter is back in their lives.
"The way I felt when I lost my daughter, it was a big part of my heart that was just ripped apart," says Carlina's father.
