The eight-hour-old baby abducted from hospital who still calls her kidnapper mom 27 years later

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

During the afternoon of July 10, 1998, one of the most audacious kidnappings in US history unfolded in the maternity ward of a Florida hospital.
Gloria Williams, who had recently miscarried, was prowling the corridors of the University Medical Center in Jacksonville dressed in blue scrubs to disguise herself as a nurse.
She entered the cubicle where Shanara Mobley was holding her newborn baby girl Kamiyah. The two women spoke, with Mobley believing she was talking to a medical professional, until Williams scooped the child up in her arms and left the hospital.
What was supposed to be one of the happiest days of Mobley's life rapidly turned to heartbreak when she realized her baby had been snatched away not by a nurse, but by an unhinged stranger.
Mobley went on to spend the next several years desperately searching for her firstborn - and it wasn't until January 2017, when she had three more children and Kamiyah was 18 years old, that she finally got answers.
Kamiyah was months away from graduating Colleton County High School as 'Alexis Kelli Manigo', after living out her childhood as Williams' daughter at their home in the sleepy South Carolina town of Walterboro when the truth came to light.
The abducted girl still calls her kidnapper 'mom' and considers herself the child of two families - but it was her own suspicions which eventually brought Williams down.
Cracks started to show in the fabrication when 'Alexis' wanted to apply for a job, but her alleged mother refused to hand over her birth certificate or Social Security number.
An affidavit would later reveal that the birth documents for 'Alexis' had been forged, and her Social Security number was taken from a Virginia man who died in 1983.
The kidnapper's labyrinth of lies finally came crashing down when Kamiyah grew suspicious of Williams, prompting her to admit the deception, and after local police received an anonymous tip.
Today marks Kamiyah's 27th birthday, and the last nine years have seen her reunite with her birth parents after watching the woman she thought was her mother go to jail for 18 years.
Williams' emotional trial was full of twists - both inside and outside the courtroom - as family drama unfolded at the witness stand and in the media.
Kamiyah hit out at the man who had called himself her father for the past 18 years, Charles Manigo, after he cried on the witness stand and told the press his partner Williams had lied to him about the child's origins.
Manigo tearfully told ABC News the couple had named the girl Alexis Kelly Manigo after Williams led him to believe she had given birth to her while he was away.
He claimed that they raised her in Walterboro, South Carolina as Alexis Kelly and even shared custody of her when they split in 2003, while sharing a photograph of himself with the teen in her prom dress.
But Kamiyah, then 18, slammed him on Facebook while saying that he had been an absent father.
'He did nothing, he didn't even help with nothing (sic) that was done for that prom,' she wrote.
'He was the reason I didn't go to my senior prom, he was not there when I moved to Georgia, never saw him.'
Of his alleged claims that he contributed money to Williams for child support, Kamiyah wrote, 'He like (sic) to bring up a $40 check a week? Thats (sic) nothing but $160 dollars. My bundles [of weave hair] cost $290.'
Her biological mother Shanara Mobley, now 43, also broke down in tears during the court case, as she described the torment of having her newborn baby stolen just hours after she gave birth.
The heartbroken mother said she contemplated suicide 'every day' and had people watching her 'all day every day' to make sure she was ok.
She said that even 20 years later she felt the loss of her daughter deeply and even called for Williams to face the death penalty.
'I always thought about my baby every day, every day, every day. I would catch myself in my car crying, in bed crying, taking a bath crying, doing something with her siblings and crying,' said Mobley as she recalled her depression.
Mobley said she had suffered fresh pain after seeing her daughter refer to her abductor as 'mom' and seeing Williams' number in her phone as 'mommy.'
'It doesn't heal now, I am still hurting. When you're reaching out to my child - I am your mother Kamiyah,' she shouted into the courtroom. 'I am your mother!'
Mobley issued a heartbreaking ultimatum to Kamiyah during an interview with the Daily Mail in June 2018, saying she had to choose which mother she wanted in her life.
'I shouldn't have to compete with a kidnapper - she has to pick one of us,' Mobley said.
'Nobody acknowledges my pain. I feel like I'm being robbed all over again every time she (Williams) reaches out to my daughter,' she added.
'Every phone call they share, every Mother's Day card Kamiyah sends her, it just makes the pain worse.
'I'm being rejected for a kidnapper, how do you think that feels?'
At this point, Kamiyah was not on speaking terms with her biological mother after their relationship fell apart amid the acrimony.
But Kamiyah's social media indicates that they have since healed the rift, as the pair are seen posing together with wide smiles in a January 2022 Instagram post.
The 26-year-old, who shares pieces of her life via Facebook and Instagram most days, has not recently posted anything about Williams.
In a nod towards a double-identity she is still grappling with, she uses both her birth name and the name Williams gave her on her Instagram account, and has a Facebook profile for each.
The Daily Mail has reached out to see how she is doing ahead of her 27th birthday.
It's unclear whether Kamiyah visits Williams in jail, though she appealed to the court to reduce her 18-year sentence in a heartfelt letter penned in September 2021.
'I am writing this letter in support of my mother, Gloria Williams,' Kamiyah wrote in a letter, which was obtained by Actions News Jax.
'I would like to make it clear that she is my mother. She raised me, and not only provided for my needs, but she loved me unconditionally,' she said.
'I had a well-rounded life; and I am an independent, college educated, and deeply spiritual person, because of all my mom gave me. I am fully aware of how our lives came to be, what they are, and how my mom came to be my mom.
'I have met my birth parents, and I am grateful to have me my birth parents, and I am grateful to have a 2nd family in my life — especially to have siblings.
'I understand that none of this modifies the truth of the past, nor does it justify my mom's actions in any way,' she continued,
'However, at the end of the day, I love my mother and I wholeheartedly support her! I ask for the court's grace and mercy, as I need my mother home.'
The letter was included in Williams' motion to a judge to consider shortening her sentence in December 2021, and it was revealed to the public in March 2022.
Kamiyah also previously defended her kidnapper as 'no felon' and said she raised her with 'everything (she) needed', but the motion was rejected.
Meanwhile, the former University Medical Center paid Mobley $1.5 million as they settled a lawsuit with her for allowing the abduction to happen.
She was just 16 years old when she gave birth to Kamiyah, and has since raised three more girls - Shuriah, Shakaria, and Shadawn.
Kamiyah's father, Craig Aiken, now 50, was in jail when she was born for drug possession and delivery, and for impregnating Mobley when she was 15 years old and he was 19.
Williams was around 33 when she kidnapped Kamiyah. She was in the midst of an abusive relationship, and had miscarried a child a week before.
When she pleaded guilty to kidnapping Kamiyah in February 2018, her neighbors expressed their shock, describing her as a regular church-goer.
On June 8 of that year, she was sentenced to 18 years behind bars at Hernando Correctional Institution in Brooksville, Florida.