Approximately 25 years ago, a woman entered Harlem Hospital in New York City, and exited after snatching someone else’s 19-day-old daughter - raising that child all this time as her own. Annugetta Pettway (a.k.a. “Ann Pettway,”) pled guilty yesterday (Feb. 10) to one count of kidnapping in connection with the 1987 abduction of that 19-day-old infant.
According to the FBI, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara stated:
“There are few things more devastating than the loss of a child. The parents of Carlina White had their lives shattered when their baby girl was stolen from them. The kidnapping began a 24-year nightmare during every day of which they were denied the love, hopes, and dreams parents share with their children.
With today’s guilty plea, Ann Pettway will be punished for her egregious crime and this family can begin to piece together this part of their lives.”
According to the complaint, plea agreement, and Information to which Pettway pled:
Background: On Aug. 4, 1987, a mother and father brought their infant daughter (Carlina White) to Harlem Hospital, where she was admitted with a fever. In the early hours of the following day, hospital personnel discovered that the baby girl was missing. In January 2010, the victim of the kidnapping who is now 24 years old, told a New York City Police Department detective that when she sought to obtain prenatal care for her own child, she asked Pettway for identification documents, such as a birth certificate. Pettway told White she did not have identification documents for her because she had been given to Pettway by a woman who used drugs.
Carlina White also told the NYPD Detective that in January 2010 she contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (“NCMEC”) to inquire about missing children from the late 1980s. After investigating her own case with the assistance of NCMEC, White was put in touch with her biological parents.
Pettway surrendered to authorities on January 23, 2011, and admitted going to Harlem Hospital, taking 19-day-old Carlina White with her by train to Bridgeport, and raising her there as her own.
“I went to Harlem Hospital,” she <Pettway> told Judge P. Kevin Castel of Federal District Court in Manhattan. “I took a child. I got back on the train and went home and raised her as my own.”
As some in the gallery wiped their eyes, Ms. Pettway added, “It was wrong.” Among those listening to her were Ms. White’s biological parents.
Pettway (50), faces a max sentence of life in prison. She is scheduled to be sentenced on May 14, 2012.
See the video accompanying this article for additional information on this story.
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