Florida newborn kidnapped from hospital in 1998 found alive

A missing poster by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children displays a photo of Kamiyah Mobley, who was abducted from a Jacksonville, Fla., hospital just hours after her July 10, 1998, birth. This week, authorities found the child -- now an 18-year-old woman -- 200 miles north near Charleston, S.C. A suspect was arrested in the case. Image courtesy Nat'l Center for Missing and Exploited Children

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Jan. 13 (UPI) — After being missing for nearly 19 years, a newborn baby abducted from a Florida hospital has been found — now an adult woman, authorities said Friday.

Officials in South Carolina this week located Kamiyah Mobley, who was taken from a Jacksonville hospital in July 1998 by a woman posing as a health worker. Just hours old at the time of her abduction, she is now 18.

DNA tests have confirmed the identity of the young woman, who has lived her life under another name. The woman accused of stealing her, Gloria Denise Williams, was arrested in Walterboro, near Charleston.

According to authorities, Mobley was unaware that Williams is not her biological mother.

“She had an idea that something may have occurred but … imagine her trying to process this,” Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said Friday.

The FBI, the United States’ foremost authorities on abductions, was involved in finding Mobley and arresting Williams.

“I always hoped and prayed this day would happen,” the woman’s biological father, Craig Aiken, said. “I always felt she was alive. I always felt she would find us. Now we have the rest of our lives together.”

Williams, 51, faces extradition to Jacksonville — about 200 miles to the south — for prosecution.

Mobley, born on July 10, 1998, was removed from her mother’s room at a Jacksonville hospital about eight hours after her birth. Williams, investigators believe, posed as a nurse to take the child — and even spent several hours with the family in the phony role.

At one point, the kidnapper claimed the baby had a fever and needed to be checked. She wasn’t seen again — until this week.

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