It seems like I’ve been seeing the grainy baby picture of Kamiyah Mobley floating around the internet for weeks now. I’m sure you’ve probably seen it too.
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/kamiyahmobley?src=hash">#kamiyahmobley</a> found in South Carolina 18 years after her abduction from <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jacksonville?src=hash">#Jacksonville</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/JSOPIO">@JSOPIO</a> <a href="https://t.co/1fWx9enY0P">pic.twitter.com/1fWx9enY0P</a></p>
— Ashley Hollander (@AshleyANjax) <a href="https://twitter.com/AshleyANjax/status/819952958280495104">January 13, 2017</a></blockquote>
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It was often paired with the image of another woman, dressed in a leopard shirt looking toward the ground. For a while I assumed that the media got it wrong and was trying to convince us that the baby picture was that of the woman in the leopard print. instead, the woman next to the baby picture, was posing for her mug shot in that photo. She, Gloria Williams, is the woman being accused of kidnapping Kamiyah back in 1998.
<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/kamiyah-mobley-police-woman-kidnapped-as-newborn-18-years-ago-is-alive/">According to sources,</a> Williams had suffered a miscarriage, a week before Mobley was born. She was only eight hours old when Williams took from the hospital pretending to be a nurse at the University Medical Center. She raised Mobley as her own daughter for the past eighteen years, giving her the name Alexis Manigo. Williams has been arrested and was charged with kidnapping, a crime which has no statue of limitations. And Alexis was reunited with her biological parents.
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Kamiyah Mobley was abducted as a newborn 18 years ago. On Friday, she finally reunited with her biological parents: <a href="https://t.co/cCKaUIJMFL">https://t.co/cCKaUIJMFL</a> <a href="https://t.co/ZfxnrkrVIO">pic.twitter.com/ZfxnrkrVIO</a></p>
— CBS News (@CBSNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/820827925973004288">January 16, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Manigo’s father, Craig Aiken told CBS affiliate <a href="http://www.live5news.com/story/34262234/abducted-newborn-reunites-with-parents-18-years-later">WCSC</a> that he was still in shock after their initial 45 minute reunion.
<blockquote>“First meeting was beautiful, it was wonderful, couldn’t went no better... she was glad to meet us. 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.”</blockquote>
While Manigo's biological mother didn’t comment to the press when she was reunited with her daughter, she did tell the <em>Florida Times-Union</em>, on the tenth anniversary of Kamiyah’s birth and kidnapping that on each of her birthdays, she wrapped a piece of birthday cake in foil and stuck it in the freezer. She said, “It’s stressful to wake up every saying, knowing that your child is out there and you have no way to reach her or talk to her.”
After the reunion, her father said that it will be his daughter's decision as to whether or not she will visit them in Florida.
Often, when we hear about stories of newborns being kidnapped, we assume that the type of person who would literally snatch a baby from its parents arms, would lack the compassion necessary to be a good parent.
But with Alexis and Gloria Williams, that doesn’t seem to be the case. In a recent interview with “Good Morning America,” Alexis said that Williams is the only mother she’s ever known.
“She will always be mom. Your whole life you’ve been known as Alexis, Lexi. Now it’s like people are referring to you as someone else, nationally.”
Eva Pilgrim asked her, if in the midst of all of this, she’s had the opportunity to even sit and process what has happened and what will happen to her and her family.
“It’s not so much I don’t want…Well, it is that. I don’t want to. But I know it’s going to come…Stuff like this does not happen. It just doesn’t. This attention is very overwhelming.”
As far as her relationship with her biological parents, Alexis says, “I feel like I do owe them that to give them a chance, you know, get to know them.”
Pilgrim asked Alexis if she thinks about what her life would have been like if she had actually grown up with her biological parents.
“I’m not saying they weren’t going to be good parents. I’m not saying that at all. But it would have been a different life. When you find out you got another family out there, it’s just more love.”
Reflecting on seeing her mother in jail, Alexis, who was openly sobbing at the sight, said, “That did hurt that they had her in cuffs. She’s a gentle woman.”
“From that one mistake, I was given the best life. I was. I had everything I ever needed, wanted. I had love, especially.”
Pilgrim asked Alexis what she would like to see happen in an ideal world.
“I understand what she did was wrong. But just don’t lock her up and throw away the key, like everything she did was just awful. She loved me for eighteen years. She cared for me for eighteen years.”
Alexis said that she feels that she has to protect her mother, in fact she can’t even say how she realized that she might have been kidnapped for fear that it could incriminate her mom.
“You feel obligated to protect them in any possible, in any way possible. You can’t just say, ‘Oh they did something wrong. Let me just forget about them and move on.’ It’s not that easy…I will always love her.”
Williams is facing life in prison. While Alexis and her attorney are in the process of getting her official documents like ID and a social security number.
You can watch her interview with “Good Morning America” in the video below.
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">EXCLUSIVE: 18-year-old abducted at birth speaks out on <a href="https://twitter.com/GMA">@GMA</a> with@ABC's <a href="https://twitter.com/EvaPilgrim">@EvaPilgrim</a>: <a href="https://t.co/GOejfDeDuG">https://t.co/GOejfDeDuG</a> <a href="https://t.co/kY4uYKtXHU">pic.twitter.com/kY4uYKtXHU</a></p>
— Good Morning America (@GMA) <a href="https://twitter.com/GMA/status/821698159550156800">January 18, 2017</a></blockquote>
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<i>Veronica Wells is the culture editor at MadameNoire.com. She is also the author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bettah-Days-Veronica-R-Wells/dp/1535549866" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.amazon.com/Bettah-Days-Veronica-R-Wells/dp/1535549866&source=gmail&ust=1484843118585000&usg=AFQjCNGe-l5sXt1cdCX8BqaBK-Zi5SyDoA">“Bettah Days.”</a> You can follow her on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/veronicarwells" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.facebook.com/veronicarwells&source=gmail&ust=1484843118585000&usg=AFQjCNH1PuEO8gbImLpToQkuMqe-R-8k7g">Facebook</a> and Twitter<a href="https://twitter.com/VDubShrug" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://twitter.com/VDubShrug&source=gmail&ust=1484843118585000&usg=AFQjCNFalCduk6YSd4hU-VwRp5JVCJW3KA"> @VDubShrug.</a></i>
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