abducted in 1987..
@chicksdigscars (5483)
July 31, 2012 5:32am CST
I heard an article on the news this morning about a young girl who was reunited with her real parents after being abducted in 1987.
She was abducted at age 19 days from a hospital by a woman and raised as the woman’s own for her entire life.
She has now been found, and the abductor has been jailed. And to be honest I’m completely torn about the story. Don’t get me wrong I don’t agree with what that woman did in 1987 but at the same time, she is the only mother that that young girl has ever known. She has been ripped from what she obviously considers to be her family, and thrust into a life with people she has never met.
I am a firm believer that people should pay for their crimes, especially crimes that ruin or hinder the lives of others, but I just feel like it’s such a blow and a hardship to put onto the young girl, who hasn’t done anything wrong, by telling her she pretty much has new parents now..
Here is the link for the article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/nyregion/25kidnap.html
What do you think of this?
2 people like this
7 responses
@carmelanirel (20942)
• United States
31 Jul 12
I heard about this as well and was torn between the girl's love for the woman who raised her, and the knowledge this same woman took her away from her real family. I just wonder how this woman got this girl through school without a birth certificate. That is something I had to supply when my children started school.
@StrawberryKisses (2833)
• Canada
31 Jul 12
All she would have had to do was steal someone elses that was born the same year or even homeschool.
1 person likes this
@carmelanirel (20942)
• United States
31 Jul 12
That's true except it said in the article that, "At some point, she tried to create a fraudulent birth certificate but failed, the complaint said." and there is a picture of the girl in her senior year in her year book. Do homeschoolers have year books? I don't think so, my sister homeschooled and none of my nieces or nephews had a picture like the one in the article. Then again, it has been years since her last one graduated from hoemschooling, maybe they do now...
@chicksdigscars (5483)
•
1 Aug 12
I was thinking the same thing. Doctors, dentists, schools.. anything!
and what would have happened if/when the girl wanted to get married? You need a birth cert for that as well.. it's completely crazy!
And how she was able to actually convince her family, that after loosing lots of other babies, she suddenly had delivered this one? And how her family didn't notice the baby pictures all over the news?
1 person likes this
@changjiangzhibin89 (16533)
• China
6 Aug 12
The mills of God grind slowly , but they grind exceeding small.It serves her right for the woman to be put behind bars.Grant that she didn't kidnap and sell the girl but raises as her own,but has she thought what she has brought on the girl's real parents? But then,if we put ourselves in the girl's place,we can well imagine that it was a bolt from the blue for the girl at the moment when she knew the woman that she has lived with for 25 years wasn't her biological Mum but an abductor.what a harsh reality !My heart goes on to the girl!
@changjiangzhibin89 (16533)
• China
8 Aug 12
According to the article,the girl has long suspected that the family that raised her was not her own and found her real parents via a website. I think it won't be long before she gets along well with her new family.
@chicksdigscars (5483)
•
7 Aug 12
Oh well yes, ultimately it is the girl has lost out on everything.. getting to know her real parents, and then in turn losing the only mother she has ever known from now on.. she has lost 2 sections of her life, no matter how you look at it. her real childhood and her "fake" future..
@StrawberryKisses (2833)
• Canada
31 Jul 12
Wow that is definitely crazy. I feel the same as you do, but at the same time you have to think about how the mother of the child felt when her baby went missing. I would be so devastated if that happened to me and I would want justice if my child was ever found even if it was 20 yrs later.
@chicksdigscars (5483)
•
1 Aug 12
I would want justice too, but at the same time, that woman still raised her, and I think that if I had love for the child I had lost all those years ago, I wouldn't rip the only mother she had ever known away from her if it was possible. She lost a child, and now her child is technically losing a mother..
@chicksdigscars (5483)
•
1 Aug 12
Oh exactly, at least she is an adult, and from what I have read, she is actually having a baby of her own. If she was a child I cannot even fathom how that would have panned out. It would have been completely inhuman to rip that girl away from her "mother" like that..
I think this story is a classic example of how an overall law, really doesn't work the vast majority of the time. Not obviously that the law could be dertermind on an individual basis everytime, or court would always be in session.. but sometimes it really doesn't work.
@jaiho2009 (39142)
• Philippines
31 Jul 12
A very touching story.
It's like watching a movie, but it's real.
A very complicated matter as well, pain and suffering from both parties.
The abductor who made herself happy and contented for 23 years and the real parents' agony for losing their child.
I agree that the crime she did must serve the punishment- but,I hope she will be granted with less punishment for taking care of the baby (being a good mother)
For the real parents this must be a relief knowing that their child is still alive.
For the victim- I guess is the hardest part and most shocking revelation of her life.
@jaiho2009 (39142)
• Philippines
31 Jul 12
I was fascinated by the story and found myself searching more links regarding this matter.
It looks like the victim is not well taken care of by the abductor.
So, I guess she must face all the punishment that suits her.
@chicksdigscars (5483)
•
1 Aug 12
I read that as well about how she wasn't very well looked after.. but to be honest I kind of doubt that part of the story. All children, especially teenagers and people in their early 20's profess to have been treated badly at some stage of their lives. And how badly was she treated that social services weren't involved? If social services had of been involved, the truth would have been found out sooner.
I just think it's easy now for the girl to play the victim. I know thats a horrible thing to stay but it's just the impression I'm getting from the way it's being portrayed.
@topffer (42156)
• France
31 Jul 12
I believe also that people should pay for their crimes, but I am asking myself in this case. In countries of Roman law, like mine, there is a prescription for a crime after 10 years -- 20 years for a sentence --, and the kidnapper would probably not have been put in jail. Being abducted at 19 days, her family is more in my mind the kidnapper than her real family discovering her 23 years later. This girl is a sort of stranger for her parents, and putting her "mother" in jail does not help. I don't know what to think.
@chicksdigscars (5483)
•
1 Aug 12
I thought the same thing.. her "real" family are now kidnapping her away from the only life she has ever known, sort of. I mean obviously she is an adult so it's her choice whether she wants to get to know them or not, and yes her "un-real" mother kidnapped her all those years ago, but at the same time, THAT is her mother as far as shes concerned, and one day she pretty much gets taken away and replaced with someone she's never met?
In circumstances like these there should be some other form of punishment, instead of jail. The girl should be able to have access to her mother, well the woman she thought was her mother, as she didn't do anything wrong.
@samd87 (327)
•
31 Jul 12
It must be so hard for her, I cant even begin to imagine how she must feel. Even her name, is not her true name. The poor birth parents, it must be so hard for them too, losing their daughter 23 years ago and then hearing she is alive and discovering what actually happened.
I don't understand how the womens family never suspected anything, I mean did they not think it strange that suddenly she had a baby.
@chicksdigscars (5483)
•
1 Aug 12
I wondered the exact same thing! How did the woman, who had suffered several miscarriages, walk up to her own parents door one day and say hey this your granddaughter? I mean seriously.. especially when there were pictures all over the news of the missing baby. Did none of her friends and family say.. ok you suddenly have a baby and it looks exactly like the one on the news?
