Stolen Baby Found 17 Years Later

A baby stolen from her sleeping mother's
arms shortly after birth has been found
by the family through an astonishing
coincidence 17 years later, South African
police say.
A 50-year-old woman has been arrested
and charged with kidnapping after pupils
noticed a remarkable likeness between
the 17-year-old and her younger
biological sister, who started attending
the same school this year.
DNA tests have confirmed that the older
girl is the daughter of Celeste and Morne
Nurse, who was snatched from Groote
Schuur hospital as a three-day-old baby
named Zephany in April 1997..

The parents, who later had three more
children, have celebrated Zephany's
birthday every year since she was
kidnapped, never giving up hope that
their first-born child would come back to
them some day, the Cape Argus said.
Zephany grew up with a different name,
and a different family, never knowing she
was not their real daughter.
But last month her biological sister,
Cassidy Nurse, started high school at the
same school as Zephany, and fellow
pupils noticed a startling resemblance she
bore to a final-year student.
When Cassidy told her parents about the
girl, they invited her home for a cup of
coffee.
When they saw the striking resemblance
between the girls, they contacted the
police.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel
Andr Traut confirmed that a woman had
been arrested. She and her husband, who
is also in his fifties, have no other
children.
"The suspect is being charged with
kidnapping, fraud and contravening
sections ... of the Children's Act, in that
she fraudulently pretended that she was
the biological mother of a child,"
"The kidnapped girl has since been placed
in the care of the Department of Social
Services of the Western Cape
government."
Without knowing it, the Nurse family had
been living within a couple of kilometres
of their kidnapped daughter.