The man who raised an 18-year-old who was kidnapped as a newborn as his own spoke out, saying, “She’s still my child.”
Last week, South Carolina man Charles Manigo learned that the woman he believed to be his one was kidnapped just hours after she was born, he told ABC News.
“I named her – a name I had for a year: Alexis Kelly,” he said. “She was the love of my live.”
Manigo’s former girlfriend, Gloria Williams, had allegedly snatched the infant from a maternity ward, telling him she’d given birth to the baby while he was away.
But the girl’s real name was Kamiyah Mobley. One man’s heartbreak was another man’s joy when her biological father, Jacksonville man Craig Aiken, was told that she’d been found.
Aiken and Mobley’s biological mother would celebrate her birthday every year and would imagine “how it would be if she were here” and “what we would do if sh came back,” he told ABC News on Friday.
“I love her,” he said. “I’m glad to see her. I love her.”
Mobley grew up in Walterboro, South Carolina and believed that Williams was her biological mother, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. She now appears to be a normal 18-year-old in good health, police said.
#KamiyahMobley – Suspect Gloria Williams, 51 years old was arrested this morning in SC. #JAX #JSO #Jacksonville pic.twitter.com/RvwehAcAyE
— Jax Sheriff's Office (@JSOPIO) January 13, 2017
Williams, 51, has been charged with kidnapping, accused of taking Mobley from the University Medical Center in Jacksonville, now known as UF-Health Jacksonville, on July 10, 1998, First Coast News reported.
Williams allegedly posed as a nurse and told Mobley’s mother, Shanara Mobley, that her daughter was running a fever and needed to be examined further. She then walked out of the hospital room with the baby in her arms, and the two were never seena gain.
#KamiyahMobley – Original composite and sketches released at the time the kidnapping occured. #JAX #JSO #Jacksonville pic.twitter.com/ToqdGprgHL
— Jax Sheriff's Office (@JSOPIO) January 13, 2017
Jacksonville police received two tips in late 2015 that led them to Walterboro, which led them to a young woman who had the same birth date as the infant who went missing.
A few months ago, she began to suspect that she may be involved in the abduction case, police said. She then submitted a DNA sample to authorities, which came back positive last week.
Manigo and Williams raised Mobley together since she was an infant, sharing custody of her until they broke up in 2003, he said. But, they would celebrate her milestones together, like her prom.
“One of the hardest things she said on Friday was, ‘Dad, I love you,’ even though she knows what’s going on,” Manigo said, adding that the media attention is “overwhelming.”
Mobley’s biological grandmother, Velma Aiken, told ABC news that the family cried “tears of joy” when they were told by police that Mobley had been found. She said she spoke to her granddaughter, and it felt like they had known each other all along.
Velma Aiken said she was “bitter and empty” toward Williams for “stealing” her “grandbaby,” but said she was grateful that she was “willing to raise her right.”
It is believed that Williams had suffered a miscarriage the week before the kidnapping, according to Walterboro Live. She is also the biological mother to two younger children, who were living in their South Carolina home at the time of her arrest.
People close to the family have expressed shock upon learning what Williams has been accused of. Ruben Boatright, who has known Williams for almost 15 years, said she was an active member in her church and community, News4Jax reported.
“The family is a good family,” he said.
Although he’s not her biological father, Manigo said that he will always be there for Mobley.
“She’s still my child,” he said. “I understand what’s going on, but she’s still my child.”
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