Facebook clue cracks 20-year-old abduction case in South Africa
Twenty years after her newborn baby was abducted, her family stumbled across her profile on Facebook, eNCA reported.
According to the report, the baby was abducted in 2001, right after she was born.
The mother, who was 16 at the time, had given birth and was discharged from Carolina Provincial Hospital on the same day. She lived in Breyton, near Ermelo.
She was on her way home with her sister when they stopped at a store, as the mother was in a lot of pain and feeling some dizziness.
Before going into the shop, the sister briefly spoke to another woman.
This woman then struck up a conversation with the mother. After some time had passed, she offered to take the baby to look for the sister in the shop.
When the sister returned, the woman was gone with the baby.
They searched but couldn’t find the woman or the baby and ultimately reported the matter to the police.
In the intervening twenty years, the mother has had two sons.
One of her teenage boys was browsing Facebook when he found a photo of a woman he thought looked exactly like his grandmother would’ve in her younger years.
His grandmother remarked that the young woman looked exactly like the boy’s mother.
The family contacted the young woman and found out she was in nearby Carolina.
Police stated that DNA testing ultimately confirmed that she was the long-lost daughter abducted in 2001.
“A 50-year-old lady was charged with child abduction, and she appeared before court. She will appear again at the end of January next year,” Mpumalanga SAPS spokesperson Selvy Mohlala told eNCA.
eNCA reported that the abducted woman, who is 20 years old now, currently wants to remain with the family who raised her.
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