FBI Hunts for Ann Pettway

Carlina White Update: FBI Hunts for Ann Pettway, Suspected Kidnapper of NYC Infant 23 Years Ago

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) Federal Bureau of Investigation officials are trying to locate Ann Pettway, a woman believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of Carlina White, who at 19-days-old was abducted from a New York hospital, and then was finally reunited with her biological family twenty-three years later.

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Pettway, who allegedly used several birth dates and aliases as she moved between Connecticut, Georgia and then North Carolina, is now nowhere to be found as officials search for answers in the decades-old investigation, reports The New York Post.

"As we've learned of her involvement in this abduction, we've been working to locate her, and we haven't been able to reach her," Keith Acree, a spokesman for the Department of Correction in North Carolina, told the Post.

Pettway is on parole in North Carolina until June 2012 after she was convicted on an embezzlement charge, states the Post.

Authorities say a woman dressed as a nurse abducted a newborn Carlina White on Aug. 4, 1987 from a crib at Harlem Hospital in New York City. White was raised as Nejdra Nance.

Her biological parents, Joy White and Carl Tyson, said they left the hospital to rest after their baby was admitted in the middle of the night with a high fever. But when they returned they received the shocking news that their newborn was gone.

Relatives told CBS station WCBS that White was raised in an abusive home in Connecticut and then later moved to Georgia.

Carlina White said she became skeptical of her past after Pettway could never provide her with a birth certificate. She discovered her true identity after contacting the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Investigators are not saying whether they have identified any suspects, but the White family believes Pettway is the kidnapper.

"We have our suspicions in this case, but you need more than that for probable cause," said chief NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

Authorities are looking at whether federal officials should take over because the statute of limitations may have expired in New York, said Browne. There is no limitation in federal missing children cases.

News From: www.cbsnews.com