By G9ija.com

THE TEENAGER who was stolen as a baby from a Florida hospital and found eighteen years later yesterday praised the woman who kidnapped her and insisted: “My mother is no felon.”

Kamiyah Mobley, now 18, spoke out for the first time on her Facebook page as 51-year-old social worker Gloria Williams was charged with her abduction.

She added: “My mother raised me with everything I needed and most of all everything I wanted.”

Police say Williams dressed in a nurse’s uniform to steal Kamiyah from her biological parents at the hospital in Jacksonville in July 1998 and raise her as her own 200 miles away in Walterboro, South Carolina under the name Alexis Manigo.

Kamiyah with Gloria WilliamsFACEBOOK

Kamiyah Mobley has defended the woman who abducted and raised her, Gloria Williams

The revelation that she is not Gloria’s daughter is brand new to all of us

Tesha Stephens

Authorities confirmed her true identity through DNA tests and last night in Britain the astonishing case was said to have “buoyed up” the parents of Madeleine McCann, who vanished from a holiday apartment in Portugal’s Praia da Luz in May, 2007 aged three.

A friend of Kate and Gerry McCann declared: “This is the news they are dreaming of receiving themselves one day. It really does give them renewed hope and some joy.”

 

Across the Atlantic, the disappearance of Kamiyah made headlines across America after she was stolen from the arms of her birth mother, Shanara Mobley, at Jacksonville’s University Medical Centre.

Gloria Williams had suffered a miscarriage about a week before she made the three-and-a-half hour drive from South Carolina to Florida to snatch Kamiyah, who she raised with her own two biological children.

Shanara Mobley and Craig Aiken

Kamiyah’s biological parents (pictured) wept with joy when they were told that she had been found

Jacksonville Police, who said they found her as the result of a tip-off, revealed that Kamiyah was told on Friday that the woman who raised her was not her real mother.

She managed to connect via FaceTime with her biological parents Shanara Mobley and Craig Aiken, who had cried “tears of joy” when a detective told them their “baby” had finally been found alive and well.

A police spokesman said: “Her biological family is elated. But it is up to the victim on whether contact will be kept up as the victim is now an adult.”

Kamiyah and Williams on snapchatFACEBOOK

At one point during the trial, Kamiyah shouted ‘Momma’ through the courtroom security door

Kamiyah, who has graduated high school and is believed to have a steady boyfriend, was also allowed to spend a few emotional moments with Williams, who is being held without bail and could face a sentence of life in prison if convicted.

At one stage, she cried “Momma” through the caged window of a courtroom security door and, later, Tesha Stephens – a cousin of Williams – insisted: “Right now she’s holding up.

“She’s processing everything and she’s probably going to have to take this day by day. The revelation that she is not Gloria’s daughter is brand new to all of us.”