An extraordinary moment an 18-year-old girl who was abducted from a Florida hospital as a baby finally reunited with her biological parents.
Kamiyah Mobley has spent her entire life living as Alexis Manigo and had no idea her real parents were Shanara Mobley and Craig Aiken.
But days after learning the shocking secret of how she was snatched at birth and raised by another woman, Kamiyah was finally able to meet her birth parents in South Carolina.
The trio posed for their first ever heart-melting family photo, breaking into broad smiles with Shanara looking close to tears as her long-lost daughter reached out to capture the shot.
After spending nearly an hour with his daughter, Aiken, 41, said ‘It was the best day of my life. It was a beautiful, beautiful day. We are so happy. I hope the world is rejoicing with us.’
The emotion-charged meeting took place behind closed doors at a police station in Walterboro, South Carolina, where the woman who raised Kamiyah, 51-year-old
Gloria Williams, is currently in custody awaiting extradition to Florida to face kidnapping charges.
Aiken, whose wife Shannon was also present, said they chose not to discuss the alleged kidnapping, instead focusing on getting to know the daughter he and Shanara feared they would never see.
It’s going to be hard for her to turn this into a positive. She’s got very mixed emotions about the woman who raised her.
‘But we are going to be there for her, this is just the start of a wonderful future.’
The mystery of Kamiyah Mobley became a national sensation when she was stolen from her mother Shanara Mobley’s arms at the University Medical Center in Jacksonville in July 1998.
Authorities revealed Kamiyah had an inclination’ some months ago that she may have been kidnapped before Williams was arrested on Friday.
Kamiyah burst into tears as she said goodbye to Williams as her abductor waived extradition to Jacksonville, where she will face kidnapping charges
I love you mom,’ she told Williams as the two shared a moment, separated by a mesh screen in the Colleton County Jail in Walterboro, South Carolina.
Williams blew Kamiyah a kiss as the teenager cried out ‘Momma’ and told her abductor she was ‘praying’ for her.
Just hours after police revealed that Kamiyah Mobley had been found, Manigo took to Facebook to defend her abductor.
‘My mother raised me with everything I needed and most of all everything I wanted,’ she wrote. ‘My mother is no felon.’
Meanwhile Williams, who also has two biological children who grew up with Kamiyah, will be extradited in Florida as soon as possible.
She’s being held without bond, and could face up to life in prison if convicted. according to Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams.
Authorities have not determined Williams’ links to Jacksonville but nvestigators are currently speaking with Williams’ family to learn more about the abduction.
CBS News
