She went to school, attended church, hung out with her brothers, and invited friends to her house, which Williams made warm and welcoming. In January 2017, after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received two tips, investigators with the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office found Kamiyah Mobley living in rural South Carolina. I had love, especially.. The child was left on her own to have a child, and 8-pound Kamiyah was born the next morning. "I still feel the same way about her," she told CNN in the summer of 2018. FacebookKamiyah Mobley with her biological parents. But when she tried to get a Social Security number, she learned that her life was a lie. Very hard-working, very hard-working.. Aiken says he wasnt aware that Williams filed this motion. I love my daughter. That was about a six- to seven-hour job right there, Schoenfeld says. She was found alive in Walterboro, South Carolina in January 2017. The woman who pleaded guilty to kidnapping a baby from a Florida hospital hours after she was born was sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison. Of the victims, Lowery says, They do bond with whom they believe to be their birth mother You cant turn [that bond] on and off. As for the baby who was born as Kamiyah and raised by her kidnapper, Lowery says, Her trust system has been essentially shattered. Cord blood is the umbilical fluid that contained Kamiyahs DNA. What is a good kidnapper? Shanara Mobley, Kamiyahs biological mother in Florida, was awarded $1.5 million after settling a lawsuit against the previous University Medical Center. The movie premiered in January 2020. According to the Post and Courier, Williams had left her job at a Charleston nursing home that afternoon in a fog of despair. Im not saying they werent going to be good parents, Alexis told ABC reporter Eva Pilgrim, referring to Mobley and Aiken. By 13, she was pretty much on her own. I'm just trying to spare my feelings," said Aiken. In February, Williams changed her not guilty plea to guilty, essentially forgoing a full trial. Detective Sergeant Don Shoenfeld, who retired from the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office in 2010, remembers numerous details from the day the eight-hour-old newborn was snatched by a stranger dressed in nurses scrubs. I had everything I needed, wanted. However, the prints had little value to investigators. Its hard to deal with this here right now.. Williams had worked at a veterans hospital in Charleston at one time, possibly as a social worker or as a medical records specialist. Im your mother.. Always smiling, always upbeat, up-tempo about everything. Another birthday. I ask for the courts grace and mercy, as I need my mother home, she wrote. I didnt know what you went through.. Though these kinds of kidnappings are rare, he has seen a handful of similar long-term abduction cases. Multiple news reports at the time estimate that the abductor had been at the hospital for up to 14 hours total, and that she asked about Mobleys baby before the birth occurred, possibly during the wee hours of the morning. We bump heads so much cause we so much alike, Mobley wrote on Facebook with a photo of Shanara in 2021. I kidnapped you.. DNA tests confirmed that the girl was the missing newborn. Florida State Attorneys OfficeKamiyah Mobley and her kidnapper, Gloria Williams, who raised her as her own child. Shanara Mobleys mother relinquished her rights as plaintiff in June 2000, the year Shanara turned 18, and the parties settled the lawsuit for $1.9 million. I dont, he continued. But the relationship between Kamiyah Mobley, her kidnapper, and her birth parents, is anything but simple today. Im your mother, Kamiyah. She was raised by her abductor, Gloria Williams, who had two other children from her marriage with Wernoskie Williams. In a lawsuit filed in October 1998, when Kamiyah was three months old, plaintiff Sheila Mobley said the hospital took 20 minutes to call the police after the baby was deemed missing. A stepfather and two younger children Alexis knew as half-siblings would later join her and Williams family, the UKs Daily Mail reports. "I love her [] It was like the regular, stereotypical mother-daughter relationship," Kamiyah told Today in an interview. Nobody acknowledges my pain. The only picture of Kamiyah was a composite because she was abducted just hours after being born. Im not saying that at all, but it would have been a different life. Days prior to Aikens re-arrest, Kamiyahs maternal grandmother, Sheila Mobley, would sue hospital personnel for, among other things, being too slow to call the police. Police in Walterboro matched up the birthday of the missing girl with a different name and fraudulent documents. Gloria Williams posed as a nurse and stole Kamiyah Mobley from a Jacksonville hospital in July 1998 before giving the child a different name, Alexis Manigo, and raising her as her own in South Carolina. So do you recommend the maximum sentence the court can give?. The filing also included a letter from Mobley writing in support of Williams, who she called mom. Williams neighbors and friends were astounded by the news and never suspected anything unusual about her. Velma Aiken, Kamiyahs paternal grandmother, would blame herself for the next 18 years, constantly regretting not acting on the strange feeling she got when she saw that the nurse carrying baby Kamiyah was also carrying a purse. Its time for trying on prom dresses, riding in cars with friends, dreaming of college and that inevitable rite of passage to becoming an adult: filling out job applications. If you tried to fast forward or reverse it, it scrambled the picture. On July 10, 1998, 16-year-old Shanara Mobley gave birth to a healthy, eight-pound baby girl in Jacksonville, Florida. News accounts put the total at more than 2,500 since 1998. 'Abducted in Plain Sight' Seems Too Horrible to Be True But It Is, These Memes Perfectly Capture the Insanity of 'Abducted in Plain Sight', Where the Cleveland Abduction Survivors Are Today. Unbeknownst to Mobley, shed been abducted in 1998 from a Florida hospital just hours after she was born. According to USA Today, Mobleys continued loyalty to Williams caused tension with her birth mother, who even blocked her daughters number at one point. At this writing, Williams is charged with kidnapping and custodial interference and is awaiting trial as an inmate in the Duval County jail. Birth, Age, Ethnicity, NationalityContents 1 Who is Fuquan, Who is Kamiyah Mobley? I just didnt want to be here, she said. We actually talked today. I ask for the courts grace and mercy, as I need my mother home.. She wanted her daughter to understand something: Im still hurting. I will tell you what Gloria did changed hospital facilities forever. She was sheltered from very little. I know 18 years might sound like a long time for some people but imagine me going through this for right here for 18 years. I wanted to pick that child up and say, 'Lets get in this car and go' -- I just couldnt.". People saying shes a good lady and all this. Schoenfeld confirms those reports. She said her daughter, LaShawnye, who is heading into the 10th grade, argues with people on Facebook in defense of her mother. She was awarded a $1.2 million settlement after the hospital was sued for lax oversight and security. If you want to be her child, be her child. Example video title will go here for this video. The fabricated documents, along with two tips relayed to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in August and November of 2016, were key to dismantling the falsehood that, by then, had stretched into its eighteenth year. Did she always have this much fun? Aiken said. Williams is also not about to drop the mantle of mom, either. Kamiyah Mobley is a popural American woman. Another year without her daughter. The abductor was thought to be between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five, and he may have worn glasses and a wig. Another wish. Yes, she does, the teen added. She tried to stay away from smokers. Instead, the girl had told Williams to run if she had to. There are monitors placed on children now in many facilities. Though shed since had more children, shed never forgotten her firstborn baby. Just a few hours after Mobley birth, a woman wearing scrubs walked into Room 328 at the University Medical Center where Shanara and her daughter were resting. Mobley refused. I wanted her to sleep in her bassinet, she said. In fact, Kamiyah was kidnapped before the hospital even had the chance to test her for strep B, which her mother Shanara had contracted during her pregnancy, or for sickle-cell anemia, for which Shanara is a genetic carrier. Kamiyah was reunited with her mother and father, Shanara Mobley and Craig Aiken, just a day after being found. But in January 2017, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received two tips about Gloria Williams. By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad Choices. Instead, she took these opportunities to defend her abductor, describing how grateful she was to have her as her mother. The teen also continues to live in Williams home in South Carolina, saying that she looks forward to the day Wiliams is released. But much of the time she chose not to go. The pair argued, and Shanara cut the visit short and drove home. She gave interviews on shows like Today, Good Morning America, and WCBD News 2. According to USA Today, Shanara had had a tough life, and she saw her new baby as a chance to get things right. And the smiles we gave to each other, Im like, This is my baby. I was anxious. If you feel any sympathy for me, let her go, please., Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude. The judge in the case has not responded to what Williams called her "plea for mercy". "Kamiyah is now processing what it means for the woman shes known as [her] mother to receive an 18-year prison sentence," he said. Williams had miscarried a child a week before, which is thought to be Kamiyahs motivation for the kidnapping. Kamiyah, at age of 19, had an explosive confrontation with host Iyanla Vanzant. Over the next 2 years Jacksonville Sheriffs Office investigators followed more than 2,000 leads from as far away as Nova Scotia, but none led to Baby Kamiyah. "What did I gain? Kamiyah traveled to Florida to meet her biological mother, father and five younger siblings, and began to build relationships with them. However, as a new Instagram post by her biological father, Craig Aiken, reveals, she moved to Jacksonville on Dec. 7, 2019. This is what Gloria [Williams] and Kamiyah brought upon my children. According to the Post and Courier, she screamed at Williams to leave her family alone at one point and told the judge she wanted the death penalty for her daughters kidnapper. In 1998, a newborn was stolen from a maternity ward at a Downtown hospital just hours after her birth. All Rights Reserved. On July 10, 1998, Schoenfeld had just reported for his 4 PM shift as supervisor for the JSOs homicide division, which investigates stranger abductions. Mobley has now blocked her daughter from contacting her by cell phone. She still calls her Mommy. You go to the hospital for the most joyous day of you life only to have someone steal that new life from you. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. Law enforcement enlisted help from the media, and Kamiyahs kidnapping gripped the city. Mobley sold the rights to the monthly payouts in 2009 in exchange for a lump sum which, court documents say, would be used to help lower her mortgage. Williams was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the first charge of kidnapping and five years for the second charge of interfering with custody. So she left and went back to her old ways. It was. She has not shared her weight and other body measurements with the public. She believes people, even the very people she helped financially, have snickered at her. Kamiyah was reunited with her mother and father, Shanara Mobley and Craig Aiken, just a day after being found. She was living a good life. Accompanied by her attorney, Justin Bamberg, Alexis was gracious but guarded in responding to questions about how her life might have differed, if not for the, Jacksonville Magazines Signature Event Series, How Floridas agricultural heartland is fighting for survivors, A look backand forwardfrom Hurricane Irma, The State of Medical Marijuana in Florida. I never forget her birthday, he says. She pled not guilty on April 5. Kamiyahs biological mother Shanara Mobley was awarded $1.5 million after settling a lawsuit against the previous University Medical Center. Mobley said she understands that second family, which includes siblings she never before knew, does not change the truth of the past or justify Williams actions. She's also read comments on social media that side with her daughter's kidnapper. Growing up in Walterboro, South Carolina, Manigo went to school, attended church, and spent time with her mother, Gloria Williams. By December 2017, the young woman began the transition period, splitting her time between Walterboro, S.C., and Jacksonville, Fla. At the time, she described her relationship with her brothers and sisters as peaceful and harmonious. The sentences run concurrently and Williams received credit for 511 days of time served. She was introduced to her biological parents in January 2017, an experience she compared to spending time with distant relatives in an interview with Post and Courier. The settlement was sizable. Detective Schoenfeld declined to comment about early investigative inquiries into whether Kamiyahs birth family had anything to do with her kidnapping. According to an arrest warrant filed by the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office in January of this year, Alexis told a National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) tipster that shed suspected since 2015 that the woman who raised her, 51-year-old Gloria Bolden Williams, was not her biological mother. Copyright 2020 by WJXT News4Jax - All rights reserved. DNA testing proved that Kamiyah was not the daughter of Gloria Williams, her abductor. Also read about Matt Zaffino. No matter how far the net was cast for suspects, police kept a close eye on the Mobley and Aiken families. But what may have seemed like a fairy-tale ending to a heartbreaking story is apparently not meant to be. Mobleys relationship with her biological mother, Shanara Mobley had been strained in part due to Kamiyahs continued relationship with her kidnapper, Gloria Williams.Williams is now serving an 18-year prison sentence for stealing baby Kamiyah. She never had a drivers license or state-issued ID. Family, Parents, Siblings, Education Shanara Mobley, 16, gave birth to Kamiyah on July 10, 1998. Pretending to be a nurse, Williams kidnapped Kamiyah just hours after the little girls birth at University Hospital, which is now known as UF Health Jacksonville. Even though Kamiyahs then-16-year-old mother Shanara Mobley was understandably inconsolable, she made a desperate plea for help on TV. Williams raised her as her own daughter under the name Alexis Manigo. Im your mother.. I pray to God he changes my heart towards you, but I hate you and that hate is very, very, very strong, Shanara said, addressing Williams directly. She left her abusive relationship, regained custody of her sons, remarried, and raised Mobley as her own daughter though now renamed Alexis Manigo. She would defend the kidnapper to me. And Gloria Williams trial revealed the tension and deep pain that existed across the two families. That was one of the main things we were concerned with, because the baby hadnt even had all of her shots yet, at eight hours old, he says. Copyright 2023 News4JAX.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings. She was tired, she said, of being disrespected. Having a baby was supposed to make Mobleys life right, perhaps for the first time. Kamiyah disappeared from the public eye shortly afterward. She said she hopes Williams dies in jail. That turned out to be used to make the match.. Some tips were easily disproven. The real estate of Kamiyah Mobley hasnt yet been disclosed in the media. I'm almost like a big aunt: worried how she is going to handle all of this," the executive producer of Stolen by my Mother added shortly afterward. Kamiyah Mobley, after all, saw Gloria Williams as her mother. She has not received any major honors yet but based on her work, she may receive nominations in the future. Kamiyahs case was one of the centerpieces of our work with healthcare facilities. Nothing.". Family, Parents, Siblings, Education. Gloria Williams passed off the baby as the child of her former romantic partner, Charles Manigo, and they raised her as their own. I shouldnt have to compete with a kidnappershe has to pick one of us, Shanara said. Id probably say to her that we did work as hard as we possibly could, but the circumstances were just such that the truth was hidden from everyone. And who knows about next year or the year after that, because only one of Mobleys wishes came true. At the same time, she maintained relationships with the people shed known as her older brothers and grandparents in South Carolina, and also with Williams. Kamiyah Mobley and her kidnapper, Gloria Williams, who raised her as her own child. Over the approximately four-year period preceding April 2016, he says, no babies were kidnapped from U.S. hospital maternity wards. Indeed, the Mobley familys lawsuit, filed in October 1998, and settled in 2000, alleged that newborn Kamiyah was carried down a stairwell, where video surveillance was inadequate. She was scared. But always, there was a cake with candles and shed make a wish or two. The last time Kamiyah and Shanara spoke was the night before Mothers Day. A Maryland Dumping Site Was Actually A Black Cemetery. DNA testing revealed that Kamiyah was not the daughter of her abductor, Gloria Williams. Though Mobley declined Williams offer to turn herself in to law enforcement, the truth eventually came out. Mobley then learned that her daughter found out a year and a half before Williams arrest that she was child who had been abducted from Jacksonville and that she did not go to authorities. We so much alike, Mobley wrote on Facebook with a kidnappershe has to pick one of us, Mobley! Media Group, a newborn was stolen from a maternity ward at a Downtown hospital just after... Her [ ] it was like the regular, stereotypical mother-daughter relationship, Kamiyah... We bump heads so much cause we so much alike, Mobley wrote on Facebook with a different and. And other body measurements with the public Actually a Black Cemetery night before Mothers day run if she had.... 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