[19] As of 2014, she continues to have a relationship with her biological parents.[19][20]. Carlina White said she became skeptical of her past after Pettway could never provide her with a birth certificate. According to records from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Pettway is still serving her sentence in New York, but she won't be serving all 12 years of it. "It was wrong," Pettway told the judge when she entered her guilty plea today in a New York courtroom. How did she accomplish this in the first place? Who Is Hasnat Khan, Princess Dianas Boyfriend on Season 5 of The Crown. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Like Christopher Dansby and Shane Walker, White was kidnapped in New York when she was a child in the '80s. Pettway was ultimately sentenced to 12 years in prison. White ultimately discovered that she had been kidnapped as a baby by searching missing children web sites, and in early 2011, was finally reunited with her real family. NEW YORK (CBS/AP) Ann Pettway, the woman believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of Carlina White, who at 19-days-old was abducted from a New York hospital and then was finally reunited. Relatives told CBS station WCBS that White was raised in an abusive home in Connecticut and then later moved to Georgia. She did not believe she would ever be able to be a parent," a court document filed by FBI Special Agent Maria Johnson, who interviewed Pettway, stated. "She lied to Carlina, to law enforcement and state authorities for 23 years," the prosecutor said. Carlina White/FacebookCarlina White solved her own kidnapping case in 2005. "I wasn't able to take my daughter to school, take my daughter to day care, watch my daughter get on the bus and, you know, have birthday parties with my daughter," he said. In this article, we take a look at a woman who kidnapped a child only 19 days after her birth. Pettway told officials that she is "truly sorry," according to the criminal complaint filed Monday. White solved the case herself 23 years later after finding her photo on a website with images of missing children. [5] DNA profiling confirmed in January 2011 that she was the missing Carlina White. As reported by New York magazine, Tyson dropped his girlfriend at her house and returned home to try to get some sleep. Pettway is on parole in North Carolina until June 2012. I can take your bike and give it back to you the next day, you are okay, but not a child," Shannon Tyson, the uncle of Carlina White, told the Associated Press. She was declared an absconder Friday and put into a national law enforcement database. Read about our approach to external linking. The statute of limitations for the state kidnapping law had expired in New York, but there is no statute of limitations for the federal law on kidnapping. In 2005, White became pregnant. If they don't accept it, it's understandable. She has reconnected with her biological parents but admits that she still has love for the woman she called Mom for the first 23 years of her life. There was no paperwork to follow her such as a birth certificate or social security card. She then allegedly told an FBI agent she stole White after. A woman posing as a nurse later revealed to be Ann Pettway took White and raised her as her own child, renaming her Nejdra "Netty" Nance. Pettway, who had experienced several miscarriages, abducted White from a hospital by posing as a nurse. Now in her 30s, she seems content to live a private life with her daughter away from media attention. "Because of my actions so many lives were hurt," she said, adding that she had raised "a wonderful bright young woman". "We say listen, the Whites . Netflix owes us answers after that ending. Daniels, with the help of the FBI, arranged a neutral location to meet Pettway. White toldNew York (opens in new tab)magazine in 2011 that while Pettway was somewhat distant, she was a responsible caregiver. Ann Pettway, 51, had pleaded guilty to kidnapping in February and offered details of the 1987 kidnapping. She brought her beautiful daughter. Pettway is truly sorry," according to Johnson's court document. She was wanted on a parole violation in North Carolina but is accused of kidnapping Carlina . Then, in a quest to find some answers, Netty turned to the internet. Pettway boarded a train for her home in Bridgeport, Conn., and told friends and family member the baby was her child. They also said that the indicted had experienced a traumatic childhood where Anns mother beat her with belts and extension cords. It was the police calling from Joy Whites apartment. A woman dressed as a nurse kidnapped Carlina White from the hospital and raised the child as her own. Pettway posed as a nurse, took the baby from the couple and pretended to take her for treatment. Police began a thorough investigation, and for a while they thought they had a suspect. Pettway was convicted of five crimes while Ms White was in her custody, according to a probation department, and had used cocaine from 1983 to 2005. She then raised White as her own daughter for over 20 years, renaming her Nejdra "Netty" Nance. [12] She had driven from North Carolina to Connecticut to arrange care for her biological son. 419 Likes, 59 Comments - Penelope Ann Miller (@penelopeannmiller) on Instagram: "Happy birthday to my hunky hubby A wonderful daddy and partner in life, love, and adventure. That was something that I always believed in myself, you know, that she would come and find me and thats the same way that I thought it would happen, Joy White said of receiving the miraculous email. Pettway turned herself into FBI officials in Bridgeport, Conn., on Sunday. "I'm pissed. Read about our approach to external linking. NY 10036. [16] Her lawyers had asked for leniency, saying Pettway had been severely depressed after suffering from multiple miscarriages and stillbirths. Authorities checked her DNA against her birth parents and realized she was their missing daughter. He said his birthday is Oct. 18, 2004, which matches Timmothy's date of birth. [8], In 1987, New York City Police Department detectives questioned a woman in Baltimore, who witnesses had identified as having been seen in the hospital, without apparent result. A woman posing as a nurse later revealed to be Ann Pettway took White and raised her as her own child, renaming her Nejdra "Netty" Nance. In May 2011, public defender Robert Baum said that he met Carlina White during preparations for Ann Pettway's trial and that White agreed to testify on Pettway's behalf. Public DomainPettway Surrendered on Jan. 23, 2011. Netty graduated from Warren Harding High School, following which, Ann and her moved out to Atlanta for a while. Thats the main thing just to find out where you come from and who you are.. While on the website of theNational Center for Missing and Exploited Children, she found baby Carlinas photos and realized that they matched her own features. Joy White and Carl Tyson had brought their newborn daughter to the hospital after she developed an infection and high fever; within a few hours, she was smuggled out of the hospital by Ann Pettway. This also included an attempted embezzlement charge from 2010. Pettway confessed to taking 3-week-old Carlina White from Harlem Hospital's emergency room in 1987. Joy White and Carl Tyson both confirmed that most of this money had been spent during the years before their reunion, and that a trust fund that had been established was obtainable only if Carlina had been found before the age of 21. She apologized for her crime at her sentencing hearing in 2012, when her lawyers reportedly argued that she "was motivated not by greed or desire to do harm, but by a desperate desire for a child, combined with depression and grief over her failed pregnancies and significant mental illness.". She was released in April 2021, after serving her time in Alabama. With the center's help, she was ultimately able to narrow down her search for her birth parents to two possible cases. Pettway acquired a forged Connecticut birth certificate, which White attempted to use as proof of identity so she could obtain the health insurance, but the officials told her the document was forged. DNA tests last year confirmed her as the daughter of Joy White and Carl Tyson. Pettway then admitted that she was someone else's daughter, but claimed she had been abandoned by a drug addict. Dressed like a nurse, Pettway reportedly told Mrs. White, "Don't cry . Plus, flyers with her photos and information had been circulated nationwide. Marie Claire is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. There was no way of knowing what the woman in white looked like except for the description given by Joy White and Carl Tyson. Biological family of Carlina White doesn't believe confessed kidnapper is sorry. "We say listen, the Whites, we're sorry this happened, but at the same time too, have some compassion for our relative," Brian Pettway, a cousin of Ann Pettway, said. However, Pettway claimed that White was abandoned as a child and that she'd taken her in. White added to New York magazine that she intended to change all of her official documentation to her legal name of Carlina White, but that she would continue to go by her nickname Netty. It was the first time an infant had been abducted from a New York hospital, and no one knew how it had happened. Here's everything we know about White's miraculous case, from her shocking kidnapping to her triumphant reunion with her birth parents. According to The New York Times, Pettway explained that she kidnapped White after suffering several miscarriages in an attempt to fill the emptiness they left behind. Netty said this about the whole ordeal: Im not mad at Ann any more. discovered her birth certificate was fake, Pettway was sentenced to 12 years in prison. White ultimately discovered that she had been kidnapped as a baby by searching missing children web sites, and earlier this year was finally reunited with her real family. "You didn't take a bike. For this, she required her birth certificate, something that Ann was never able to produce. But they soon came to a dead end, and the case of Carlina Whites kidnapping went cold. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Ms White traced her true mother after finding a photo of herself on the website of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. North Carolina Department of Correction spokeswoman Pam Walker said officials have tried unsuccessfully to reach Pettway several times. The lack of a birth certificate was one of the things that made Carlina White suspicious that something was not right. Add to this the fact that Netty had noted that she looked different than most in her family, and suspicions were at an all-time high. Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, She retreated from family and friends including her newly-discovered biological parents Joy and Carl, with whom she had a complicated relationship. The defense pointed to Pettway's suffering, including miscarriages and three still births. / CBS News. Netty's not what the Pettway family gave me or what the White family gave me. North Carolina officials saying they believe she's actively fleeing authorities. According to the Chicago Tribune, this was partly due to the press attention, but also because White wasn't able to sue New York state for what happened to her. White nonetheless searched for her biological parents for several years, eventually finding a photo on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's website that looked like her own daughter. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? A US woman who stole a baby from a New York City hospital in 1987 and raised the child as her own has been sentenced to 12 years in prison. Morgan Doughty Filed A Lawsuit Against The Murdaugh Family, Curtis Cousin Eddie Smith Claims Alex Murdaugh Made Him A Fall Guy, Buster Murdaugh Testified For The Defense At His Fathers Double Murder Trial, Love Is Blinds SK Addressed Cheating Claims Following Raven's 'After The Altar' Interview, Get Even More From Bustle Sign Up For The Newsletter. Jan. 25, 2011 -- The family of Ann Pettway, the woman who confessed to kidnapping Carlina White 23 years ago, has asked for compassion following Pettway's arraignment. Curtis Cousin Eddie Smith Claims Alex Murdaugh Made Him A Fall Guy, Morgan Doughty Filed A Lawsuit Against The Murdaugh Family, Buster Murdaugh Testified For The Defense At His Fathers Double Murder Trial, TikTok Star Bel Priestley Teases Boundary-Breaking 'Heartstopper' S2, Get Even More From Bustle Sign Up For The Newsletter. ", 1010 WINS' Sonia Rincon With More On The Story. If they don't accept it, it's understandable. White spent the next several years searching for her birth parents. Finally, more than 23 years after her kidnapping, White was reunited with her parents in 2011. It wasn't until White was in high school that she. It turned out that Carlina was actually being raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and went by the name Nejdra Netty Nance. Dis friends have said she referred to the doctor as the love of her life.. Harry and Meghan told to 'vacate' Frogmore Cottage, Explosive found in check-in luggage at US airport, Fungus case forces Jack Daniels to halt construction, Rare Jurassic-era bug found at Arkansas Walmart, China and Belarus call for peace in Ukraine. White, who had been brought to the hospital with a fever by her concerned parents at 19 days old and was hooked up to an IV. There, she found a photo of a baby who had been kidnapped in 1987 and looked just like her own daughter, Samani. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. For years she lived with Annugetta Pettway, a woman she believed was her mother, however she later discovered that Pettway was actually her kidnapper. Where Are Carlina Whites Biological Parents Now. Meanwhile, Carlina's abductor, Ann Pettway, had renamed her Nejdra Nance. NEW YORK (CBS/AP) Ann Pettway, the woman believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of Carlina White, who at 19-days-old was abducted from a New York hospital and then was finally reunited with her biological family twenty-three years later, has been declared a probation absconder. In July 2012, Pettway was sentenced to twelve years in prison. "I don't tell [people] my name is Nejdra, and I don't tell them Carlina. 48-year-old Ann Pettway was in federal court in New York on Monday after turning herself in on Sunday. It was wonderful, she didnt even seem like a stranger, she just fit right in, Whites biological grandmother Elizabeth White said. As part of her plea bargain, prosecutors originally recommended a sentence of 10 to 12 years in prison. Pettway did not enter a plea at her arraignment at the U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan, where she faced between 20 years and life in prison for kidnapping. In the second volume of Netflix's reboot of the classic true crime series Unsolved Mysteries, one episode explores the tragic back-to-back kidnappings . As the stolen infant's real mother wept in the federal court in . Growing up, White sometimes wondered if Pettway was her real mother. But I can appreciate what she did for me.. As documented in Unsolved Mysteries, White was abducted from a New York hospital in 1987 when she was just 19 days old. Heres how it works. Carlina White's father, Carl Tyson, insinuated the punishment was too lenient and felt as though Pettway should receive prison time equivalent to the years his daughter was kept away from him. He had just managed to doze off when the phone rang. Fast forwarding to 2005, she had graduated from high school and was pregnant with her first child. So how exactly was the mystery solved? [18] By the following July, White became estranged from her biological parents. Her parents were thrilled about the new addition to their family, but when White was just 19 days old, she developed a high fever. shocking news that their newborn was gone. Tyson and Joy White decided that she would stay at the hospital with the baby, but she needed to get some things from home first. When Joy White and Carl Tyson came with their daughter, Carlina, to get her fever checked, Ann even consoled them. White recognizes that she caused her biological family pain when she pulled away after meeting them, but she was overwhelmed by the media attention and felt guilt about abandoning the family who raised her. Joy White told reporters afterwards that Pettway should serve 23 years in jail, one for every year she had been separated from her daughter. hospital to rest after their baby was admitted in the middle of the White's parents sued the city and with the money they won established a trust fund for their daughter in the event of her return. Of all the missing children cases in Episode 6 of Unsolved Mysteries Volume 2, only one has a happy ending: the case of Carlina White, who was eventually reunited with her family. "I took a child. ", In court, Carlina White's mother, Joy White, said she cried for days after her child was kidnapped and "wondered if she was being fed, washed and loved.". For the mothers of the missing boys in Episode 6 of Unsolved Mysteries Volume 2, Carlina White's case is a beacon of hope. Shockingly, between 2:30 a.m. and 3:55 a.m., someone removed the IV from baby White and abducted her from the hospital. According to New York magazine, White was in high school when she discovered that her birth certificate was fake. She pleaded guilty in February to kidnapping the three-week-old Ms White from hospital. Pettway, 51, was arrested last year after the victim, Carlina White, discovered she had been kidnapped. Netflix has, thankfully, rebooted a show that we could never get enough of in the first place, and were sure the same is the case with true-crime buffs. She told the magazine of her plans to revert to her birth name, but said she would still go by Netty, since the name is "not what the Pettway family gave me or what the White family gave me. The couple didn't see their daughter until earlier this month when White's true identity was established. Johnson is a member of the FBI's Crimes Against Children Squad. "As we've learned of her involvement in this abduction, we've been working to locate her, and we haven't been able to reach her," Keith Acree, a spokesman for the Department of Correction in North Carolina, told the New York Post. "I'm not going to say she was the best mom ever, but she did what she had to do to make me who I am," she said. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. Jessica O'Connor is a public historian focusing on Deep South Black History with degrees from Winston-Salem State University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Carlina White's real mother, Joy White and her father Carl Tyson describe their feelings about Ann Pettway. February 10, 2012, 8:42 AM. I just always believed that she would find me. Even the City of New York offered a $10,000 reward. After White pressed her about it for several days, Pettway finally gave her the birth certificate but when White tried to submit it, officials said it was a forgery. She called the center's hotline and was able to contact her birth family. Carlina Renae White (born July 15, 1987), also known as Nejdra "Netty" Nance,[1] is an American woman who solved her own kidnapping case and was reunited with her biological parents 23 years after being abducted as an infant from the Harlem Hospital Center in New York City. 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