North Carolina woman charged with 1987 kidnapping of a girl from Harlem hospital

North Carolina woman charged with 1987 kidnapping of a girl from Harlem hospital

2011-01-25 06:34:22 GMT+7 (ICT)

MANHATTAN, NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) -- A Raleigh, North Carolina woman on Monday was charged with the 1987 kidnapping of a baby girl from a Harlem hospital, prosecutors informed.

Annugetta Pettway, aka "Ann Pettway," was arrested on Sunday in Bridgeport, Connecticut. On Monday, she admitted her role in the abduction of the baby girl in the Manhattan federal court.

Pettway, 49, was charged with kidnapping a 19-day-old girl from Harlem Hospital in Manhattan. On August 4, 1987, a mother and father brought their infant daughter to the hospital where she was admitted with fever.

In the early hours of the next day, hospital personnel discovered that the baby girl was missing. Pettway raised the child as her own. The victim, now aged 23, sought to obtain prenatal care for her own child earlier this month.

The victim, Carlina White, asked Pettway for identification documents, such as a birth certificate. The defendant said that she did not have identification documents for her because she had been given to her by a drug user.

White contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to research about missing children in the 1980's. She was directed to a picture of a missing child from 1987 that resembled her baby pictures.

NCMEC contacted the victim with the parents that brought the missing girl to the Harlem Hospital in 1987. NYPD detectives obtained DNA samples from the parents and White in early January.

On January 18, 2011, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner concluded that the DNA samples matched. FBI agents interviewed Pettway who said that she had troubles conceiving a child and had had several miscarriages.

The defendant also admitted going to Harlem Hospital, taking the baby girl with her by train to Bridgeport, and raising her there as her own. She also tried to produce fake birth certificates of the victim.

"Nothing can compensate Carlina White or her parents for what was stolen from them when she was seized from the Harlem Hospital 23 years ago," said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. "But now they have been reunited, and the woman who allegedly kidnapped Carlina and deprived this family of the lives they would have had together will be prosecuted."

Pettway faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a minimum penalty of 20 years of imprisonment. She also faces a minimum fine of $250,000, if found convicted.

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