I am so happy today. Kidnapped Carlina White has been found 23 years later. Alive and well.
In 1987, I had only been a reporter for two years on the radio, when I came upon a case that would haunt me until today.
Little Carlina White, only 19 days old at the time had been snatched from Harlem Hospital. I have never been able to get to the bottom of this case, and wondered if it would ever be resolved. I remember well when the cameras where gone, the hours that the young mother Joy White, then 16 would cry, and the heartache of Carlina’s grandmother. The bond grew so much between us that the White family offered to give me Carlina’s baby clothes for my infant daughter Courtney. I declined, but never forgot their gesture. The family of Carlina White is a good one.
Twenty-three years later, Carlina White — who was raised Njedra Nance — suspected she was not biologically related to the family that raised her. As a teenager, White said she had never been able to find her birth certificate.
After doing an Internet search, White wound up on the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children site and spotted a photo of a girl named "Carlina Renae White," and the rest is history.
Joy White had gone home to rest after little Carlina was admitted with a 104 degree fevor. When she returned later that morning, the baby was gone, taken by a mystery woman who’d dressed as a nurse and been hanging around the hospital for weeks.
I often wondered about Little Carlina. Was she alive? Was she ok? Did she have any idea what happened? Could her young parents ever go on and live a normal life. Could I survive what they had to go through?
But Little Carlina was just the beginning. Then in 1989 two children disappeared from a nearby Harlem housing project.
First on May 18, 1989, 2-year-old Christopher Dansby was abducted. He would in his 20’s today. His mother, Allison, says he was kidnapped from a park in the Martin Luther King Jr. towers when she left him in the care of a family member for just a few moments. He has never been found.
Then there was Shane Walker. He was last seen at the Martin Luther King Jr. Towers playground located at 113th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem as well on August 10, 1989. He was accompanied by his mother, who was approached by a man and distracted by his conversation for a brief moment. When she turned back to find her son, Walker had vanished. Walker was last seen wearing playing with two older children. Investigators do not believe that Walker's case is related to the case of Dansby, but Walker has never been found as well.
I give alot of credit to the NYPD. On all three cases, they were quite aggressive in trying to locate the three kids, searching buildings with search dogs and using all types of methods to find the kids.
So, at least there is fantastic news with Carlina white. She has been raised in Connecticut and Georgia.
What helped in solving her case, the NYPD was contacted and got DNA swabs from the biological mother and the biological father, Carl Tyson, in order to see if there was a match.
Tuesday, the NYPD matched the DNA and learned that she is indeed the Carlina White who was kidnapped in 1987.
The kidnappers could face federal prosecution, as there is no statute of limitations for the kidnapping of a child under 18 as long as that child remains alive. they have not been identified.
This is one story that ends on a great note, Little Carlina White has been found alive. I always felt on a personal level that as a journalist that I failed Carlina, and the two boys.
I hope and pray there’s a similar result for Little Shane Walker, and Christopher Dansby.
Today is a great, great day. I am so thankful.