Woman Set to Plead Guilty to 1987 Hospital Kidnapping of Newborn
A Georgia woman was expected to plead guilty Friday to charges that she kidnapped a newborn baby from a New York hospital in 1987 and raised the child as her own.
Ann Pettway, 50, has admitted kidnapping the three-week-old girl from Harlem Hospital in 1987 and raising the child—now a 24-year-old woman—as her own, the New York Times reports.
The crime was uncovered when the victim, Carlina White, went to the website of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children last year and saw a photograph of a baby reported missing in 1987 that she thought might be herself.
DNA tests confirmed her suspicions.
Pettway told the girl she had been given to her by a woman who used drugs. But White had long doubted the woman’s story.
The Times said it wasn’t clear from court filings to what charges Pettway would plead guilty or what her sentence would be. Neither prosecutors nor the woman’s lawyer, Robert Baum, would comment on the specifics.
But Baum said he expected that White would stand by the woman who kidnapped her.
Related articles:
ABAJournal.com: “Woman Who Raised Infant Kidnapped from Hospital in 1987 Is Charged; FBI Says She Confessed”
ABAJournal.com: “Kidnapped as Infant from Hospital in 1987, Woman Contacts Mom After Spotting Baby Photos Online”
