Hours after she was born, Kamiyah Mobley was abducted from a Jacksonville hospital on July 10, 1998. Her parents Craig Aiken and Shanara Mobley were distraught, but never gave up hope. 18 years later Kamiyah was found alive and well two states away in South Carolina under the name Alexis Manigo.
Kamiyah had been brought up by Gloria Williams, 51, who is suspected of posing as a nurse to kidnap then new-born Kamiyah. Williams has been arrested and faces a life sentence should she be convicted of kidnapping and interference with custody. She will not be protected by the statute of limitations for the heinous crimes of which she is accused.
This week has been a rollercoaster of emotion for the teen who has gained parents she never knew she had, but lost the woman she believed to be her mother.
Her biological parents made the long drive from Jacksonville to meet their daughter for the first time since her birth. Their happy reunion was hosted by the police department in Walterboro, South Carolina, the town where Kamiyah grew up.
Her birth parents drove up from #Jacksonville to see their daughter for the first time in 18 years https://t.co/RlspkgILvn pic.twitter.com/Is8LBEtZRd
— ActionNewsJax (@ActionNewsJax) January 14, 2017
Kamiyah was in tears, however, when she visited her kidnapper and surrogate mother in prison. Despite everything that happened, Kamiyah defended the woman she calls mama saying “Williams raised me with everything I needed and most of all everything I wanted. My mother is no felon. The ignorant ones won’t understand that.”
Friend of 1998 infant abduction suspect who watched Kamiyah Mobley grow up: 'No one can really believe this' https://t.co/zKp4bCi2ye pic.twitter.com/QNa9iDKRi5
— ActionNewsJax (@ActionNewsJax) January 14, 2017
Kamiyah had grown suspicious that she had been kidnapped as a child, and a DNA analysis revealed her true identity late last week.
Williams agreed to be extradited to Jacksonville, Florida where she will face charges for her alleged crimes. Her biological parents were contacted and immediately drove to meet their daughter within hours after Kamiyah learned her true identity.
When asked if his biological daughter would be returning to Jacksonville with him, Aiken told Action News Jacksonville “That’s going to be up to her, only time will tell. We’re taking it one step at a time.”
He continued to say “It’s a feeling that you can’t explain it, it’s hard to put it in words right now it’s hard to deal with this here right now. We are just trying to process it, 18 years, it’s going to be hard to make that up.”
Aiken is fully aware of the terrible choice his daughter now faces, but he intends to support her no matter what happens next. “It’s going to be hard for her to turn this into a positive. She’s got very mixed emotions about the woman who raised her. But we are going to be there for her, this is just the start of a wonderful future,” he told the Daily Mail.
Williams’ friends and family were in a state of shock after learning the news. The 51-year-old social worker had passed off Kamiyah as her own daughter who she raised with two other bilogical children.
Susan Alls, Williams’ aunt, refuses to believe what is happening. “There has to be something going on with the DNA, whatever they did,” she told the Daily mail.
Williams has an extensive criminal record that includes writing fraudulent checks, welfare fraud, and disturbing the peace. Williams and her children have been evicted from six different addresses over the last two decades. At the time of her arrest, Williams and her family were living in a house that was built for them by Habitat for Humanity.
In 1998 Williams spent 14 hours wandering through the University Medical Center (now University of Florida Health Jacksonville) dressed in a blue floral nurse’s smock allegedly looking for a child to kidnap. Other nurses reported seeing Williams in the halls, but assumed she was one of them. She had spent 5 hours with Kamiyah and her then 16-year-old mother Shanara. After telling the young mother that her new-born had a fever, Williams picked up the infant and simply walked out of the hospital.
By the time anyone realized what had happened it was far too late. Kamiyah’s abduction became an international news story overnight reported on CNN and America’s Most Wanted. A $250,000 reward was offered for information about her disappearance and current whereabouts.
Shanara was awarded a $1.5 million settlement after suing the hospital in 2000. The distraught young mother always believed her daughter was alive and placed a piece of cake in the freezer every day on Kamiyah’s birthday.