Katharina Buczek
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.
