Advertisement

Mother, kidnapped daughter reunited after 17 years

Morne Nurse the father of a girl that was kidnapped as a baby 17 years ago. Photo: AP

An extraordinary reunion has taken place in South Africa - between a mother and her daughter who was kidnapped as a newborn baby from a Cape Town hospital in 1997.

Celeste and Morné Nurse never stop thinking that one day they would find their baby girl, Zephany.

For 17 years they celebrated her birthday on April 28.

She was just three days old when an unidentified female walked into Cape Town's Groote Shuur Hospital and kidnapped her.


An extensive search by police failed to find any trace of the baby.

Mrs Nurse was still recovering in hospital when she woke to find a woman dressed as a hospital nurse sitting by her hospital bed, ABC news reports.

She drifted off to sleep and when she woke again her baby was gone.


The missing baby case came to a dramatic end when Zephany’s biological sister Cassidy started high school last month.


There was another student who looked so similar that Mr Nurse was so taken aback he contacted police.

A DNA test confirmed the student was Zephany, his long-lost daughter.

A 50-year-old woman was arrested and has appeared in court charged with kidnapping and fraudulently pretending to be the child's biological mother.

The girl, who turns 18 in April, was raised by the woman and her husband as their only child and was living just a couple of kilometres from her biological parents.

Biological mother and daughter were reunited for the first time last week.

"When she saw (her) yesterday, she knew, 'This is my child.' She said DNA wasn't necessary, she just knew," the child's aunt told local radio.

News break – March 3