Carlina White Was Abducted From A New York Hospital As An Infant And Solved Her Own Case 23 Years Later
On July 15, 1987, baby Carlina White was born in Harlem, New York, to parents Joy White and Carl Tyson.
Both Joy and Carl were over the moon after delivering their baby girl. Then, only nineteen days later, Carlina spiked a dangerously high fever.
Joy and Carl brought Carlina to Harlem Center Hospital on August 4, 1987. Carlina was declared to have an infection stemming from swallowing birth fluids and was put on intravenous antibiotics.
In a terrible turn of events, Carlina’s fever ended up being the least of their worries. Between 2:30 a.m. and 4:00 a.m., their newborn daughter was abducted from the hospital.
The Abduction
After Carlina was checked in for intravenous treatment, Joy decided to stay the night with her child. But, she needed to run home and gather some personal items first.
So, Tyson dropped off his girlfriend at home and went home to get some rest. Soon after falling asleep, he received the dreaded call.
Police informed Tyson that his daughter had been taken while Joy cried hysterically in the background.
National Center For Missing & Exploited Children; pictured above is Carlina as a baby
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Hospitals are normally tightly surveilled and have procedures in place to prevent these tragedies. But, the hospital surveillance system was down that night. And at such a late hour, witnesses were scarce.
In fact, Carlina’s case was the first time an infant was ever abducted from a hospital in New York. And hospital staff had no clue what went wrong.
Carlina’s nurses reportedly checked on her every few minutes and only discovered she was gone at about 3:40 a.m.
It was not until later that sightings of a mysterious woman came to light. She had worn a nurse’s uniform and impersonated one so well that even the hospital staff believed her.
After discovering that there was an imposter and physical descriptions were collected, a security guard recalled seeing a woman leave at about 3:30 a.m. who was a match. The security guard did not see a child with her but suspected Carlina was hidden beneath the woman’s clothes.
The police began to investigate and believed they had a strong suspect. But, the case eventually went cold, and Carlina’s abductor was not realized until decades later.
Carlina’s Discovery
After being abducted, Carlina grew up as Nedjra Nance. She lived in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and believed that her mother was Annugetta “Ann” Pettway.
Pettway was known to run into the law, having been charged with larceny, forgery, and theft as a teen. But, she was never suspected of more serious crimes since the police did not regard her as “a hell-raiser.”
It was not until Carlina came into teenagehood that she began to question her familial ties. She realized that Ann’s skin tone was lighter and that she bore virtually no resemblance to the Pettway family.
Christopher Zimmerman, Lieutenant of the New York Police Department, described how Carlina began to connect the dots in an interview with ABC News.
“Nejdra Nance was very suspicious of who she was and what family raised her. There was no paperwork to follow her, such as a birth certificate or social security card. So, in her late teens, she became suspicious of who she was,” Zimmerman said.
Then, in 2005, Carlina became pregnant, and the truth began to unfold. In order to seek state medical assistance, Carlina was required to provide an original birth certificate.
She had to badger Ann for days in order to gain access to her supposed birth certificate. But, after presenting it to the state, officials denied it on account of forgery.
At this point, Ann was forced to confess that she was not Carlina’s mother. Instead of telling the truth, though, Ann said that Carlina’s mother had abandoned her.
“She left you and never came back,” Ann claimed.
Carlina was understandably confused and asked for more details about her birth parents. Of course, Ann could not provide anything more.
This pushed Carlina, who was then twenty-three years old, to begin investigating her own past.
After scouring the internet, she discovered a kidnapping that occurred in 1987 and realized that the photographed child looked exactly like her own daughter named Samani. Coincidently, the infant had Carlina’s same birthmark.
After realizing that she was, in fact, the girl in the photo, Carlina contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and was reunited with her parents.
Family Reunion
After twenty-three years, Joy White and Carl Tyson finally received their life-changing email. Right before Christmas in 2011, NCMEC contacted the parents and confirmed that Carlina was their long-lost daughter after performing a DNA test.
“I just always believed that she would find me. That was something I always believed in myself– that she would come and find me. It was the same way I thought it would happen,” Joy said after receiving the news.
After their relationship was confirmed, Carlina and her birth parents began speaking on the phone. At first, she struggled to build a natural-feeling relationship with her birth father, but the family did not give up.
Then, Carlina finally flew to New York in order to meet them in person. The media caught wind of Carlina’s solved case and swept the White family up in a frenzy of interviews and features.
All of the outside pressure felt unnatural to Carlina, who wanted to foster a relationship with her biological parents on her own terms. After feeling rushed, she ended up pulling away from her newfound family.
Annugetta “Ann” Pettway
Ann had gone on the run after word of her role in the abduction hit the media. But, after the FBI issued a warrant for her arrest, Ann finally turned herself in on January 23, 2011.
She explained how she had suffered numerous miscarriages and kidnapped Carlina out of emotional desperation.
And, even after everything, Ann still held a special place in Carlina’s heart. After all, Ann was the only person Carlina ever considered “mom” for the first two decades of her life.
Carlina White Now
Formerly re-named Nejdra Nance, she legally changed her name back to Carlina White– her birth name. Nonetheless, Carlina still goes by her childhood nickname “Netty.”
She did later reconnect with her biological family again after the pressure died down. And she still thinks about Ann from time to time.
Still, Carlina believes the most important part of this journey was discovering herself.
“There was a part of me that was not even there. Now, I feel whole. Now I know who I am, and that’s the main thing– finding out where you come from and who you are,” Carlina said.
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