Abducted: The Carlina White Story Page #9

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quiet and to herself.

That quiet girl found

her own outlet.

At the age of ten,

she began writing poems.

I just like to write...

it expresses me.

When Netty wasn't

with her cousins,

she was home

with Ann Pettway.

For years it was

just the two of them,

until Ann had a baby boy

when Netty was 11.

Ann is a very outspoken,

loving person.

She made sure Nejdra

had everything she wanted

and everything she needed.

Ann was fairly strict

with her daughter though.

She disciplined her when

she needed disciplining.

It was, "You have to go home,

go to school

go to Brittany's house... "

But she still let us

have our fun as children,

but she did have

that strict side to her.

The young Netty didn't

dare talk back.

You didn't ask questions

why you should do it.

It was just, "You do it

because they told you. "

And that's how I grew up.

I mean, from my uncles,

my aunts... everybody.

According to police reports,

Ann ran into some trouble

over the years.

She was arrested

in 1991,'93, and '97

on charges of drug

possession and larceny.

Netty had no idea at the time.

I really wasn't exposed

to everything that she

was going through...

until I got older.

As a child growin' up,

you're not into adult business,

so those things

we wouldn't know.

Netty did shuttle

back and forth

to Ann's mother's home,

although she was given

a different reason

for the moves.

I stayed with my grandmother

when I attended school,

'cause I was going based

on her address.

I went to school

in a better district,

so I stayed with her.

Other grandkids who needed

somewhere to stay

or have some type

of issues going on,

they'll come and stay

with my mom,

and Netty was one of 'em

that stayed.

And most of the time, the kids

choose to stay with my mom.

Through her childhood,

no one in the immediate family

seems to have questioned

Nejdra's parentage.

There was no suspicion that

Nejdra was not Ann's daughter.

I knew she looked

a little bit different,

but we all look a little bit

different

in the family.

And Netty had no reason

to question it either.

If anything, I probably

thought my dad wasn't my dad.

I just figured, okay,

maybe I look like my dad,

but I don't know who he is.

But, I thought

that she was my mom,

for me growing up.

In fact, of course,

her real mother was 60 miles

away in New York City,

still dreaming

of her missing baby, Carlina.

No other leads.

They just had crazy

people call, saying that,

you know, they

may have seen Carlina,

this or that, whatever,

but it was nothing...

Joy and Carl split up

after Carlina

was kidnapped,

but together, they sued

Harlem Hospital for negligence

in allowing their baby

to be taken.

Anybody could come

to a hospital,

you're supposed to have

security around them.

And you're supposed

to watch them.

That... that's your job.

I think if they had

more security at the time,

this probably would

have never happened.

Eventually, in 1992,

they won a settlement

of 750,000.

They put some of it aside

for Carlina.

We had that hope, our

daughter was coming back.

So that's why me and Joy decided

to start this trust fund.

So, if she was to be found

by 21 years old,

she would have it.

Meanwhile, all Carlina's parents

could do was wait.

This is somethin'

that you can't explain

when you

have a missing child,

but it always stayed with me.

She was always on my mind.

I always wondered

where she was at.

I would get on trains,

and I would look at girls,

and I would just think

that maybe that's her.

As decades passed,

the kidnapping

of Carlina White,

stolen as an infant

from Harlem Hospital,

became a cold case.

After all, how do you find

a missing baby

after so many years?

Later on in the years,

things kind of,

you know, died down.

They just... think

they lost hope.

I didn't, but I...

I think they lost hope.

As often happens with

these cases,

it became the purview

of the National Center for

Missing and Exploited Children.

The experts there know

that infant abductors

usually take good care

of their captives.

We were convinced from day one

that Carlina White was

out there somewhere,

no doubt with a different name,

no doubt with no recollection

or any inkling

that she, in fact,

was a missing child.

The way the center

keeps these cases

in the public eye

is with age progressions,

using the last-known

picture of the child,

and information

about her family,

to guess what she might

look like as she grows up.

It doesn't do much good

to circulate the photograph

of a 19-day-old child

if she's now 5 years old,

or 10 years old,

or 23 years old.

That was based on her sister,

and I used that photograph

to create Carlina's

age progression,

based on Mom's statement

that her half-sister

looked just like Carlina

when they were born.

So... can't

argue with Mom on that.

Carlina's mother Joy made

her own effort

to keep the story

alive and public.

What I remember the

most about Joy White

was the fact that

she never gave up.

And periodically,

Joy would be in the media,

in New York, or elsewhere.

Sometimes I... I go to sleep,

I think about her.

Sometimes I wake up

thinkin' about her.

I did a lot of interviews

over the years

because I wanted to find

my daughter.

I wanted her back, you know,

with me, and um,

I really believed that she

was out there somewhere,

and I wanted to get

that message out

that her mother wanted her

to come back home.

Joy never stopped believing

that Carlina was alive.

I always knew that Carlina

would probably

look for her birth certificate

or something, or...

or try to find out

who her real mom was.

And in 2005,

that's exactly what happened.

The girl called Nejdra,

still living in

Bridgeport Connecticut,

found out she was pregnant.

She had a serious

boyfriend at the time

and was excited

about having a baby.

The only problem was...

she didn't have

health insurance.

She asked for help

from the woman she always

called "Mom"... Ann Pettway.

I questioned

her about, um,

my social security card,

my birth certificate.

She just said she'd

handle it, you know,

get everything

right for me.

I don't have to worry about it.

But, I started

gettin' impatient.

Nejdra snooped

among Ann's papers

until she found one that looked

like a birth certificate.

She brought it in

to apply for insurance.

They told me

to take the paper

and leave out they office

before I get arrested.

And, I just looked

at the lady like,

"I'm just tryin' to get,

you know, prenatal care.

"I need to go to the doctor

'cause I'm pregnant. "

And she was like,

"Well, this is fraud. "

The birth certificate was a fake.

The clerk called the woman

who had made it, Ann Pettway.

Now Ann had to give

Nejdra an explanation.

When she got back home

from work that night,

she came into my room.

I was hangin' up

my clothes in my closet

and she sat on my bed

and said, um, "I'm sorry. "

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