Stolen baby found after 17 years

It's astonishing, especially how the two sisters met.
I can't imagine how it will all turn out.

Perhaps think it might have been better not to know, if the 'parents' were good and loving (:

Sorry, I have no sympathy at all with the kidnapper. To steal someone else's baby is a heinous crime.

When you see the photo in this report of the young biological mother with Zephany, her first baby - it is heartbreaking to think she was stolen from her in the hospital:

www.smh.com.au/world/stolen-baby-found-after-17-years-in-south-africa-20150228-13r9q2.html

The poor girl as well, to discover that her parents are not her biological parents in such a way. She must be in turmoil wondering where she now belongs? No happy ending here I fear.

Who is talkinga bout sympathy for the kidnappers???

I am thinking about the 17 year old whose life is thrown into total turmoil here.

It sounded as if you thought it was a pity this ever came to light Jura ... and yes, for the sake of this baby/young girl, you are correct.

But for the parents who now know what happened to their baby their wait is over. They never gave up hope.

It is a terrible crime, but often the women who do steal babies are quite disturbed at the time and it probably could be argued very vulnerable emotionally. I am not making apologies for the woman but this has to be considered in any sentencing.

I just hope the two families find a way of dealing with this mess, that does not cause any further emotional damage to the feelings of the poor child concerned.

What a very strange and difficult situation for this young woman - suddenly, after a loving upbringing, she finds herself ripped from her "family" and in the care of the state.

The kidnapper needs to be brought to justice for her crimes, but this young lady needs to have some choice over what happens to her next. She may wish to stay with her known wider family, even if her "mother" finishes up in prison.

I feel so sorry for the child (who is actually a young woman at 17 IMO) at the centre of all this, now in the care of Social Services with her sense of identity truly shattered.

x posts expressing similar sentimentx, Mishap!

How awful for those involved. Hard to imagine the situation.
I remember reading a book years ago , written by Monica Dickens,about two babies swapped at birth. I think it was called Joy and Josephine.

x

A terribly sad situation for everyone.

If it weren't for the fact that the parents of a missing child must wake up every morning wondering what had happened to their child, I feel a bit like jingle. It will create so much misery, confusion and conflicting loyalties in both families, and especially for the young woman who was abducted.

There was a a not dissimilar situation recently where babies had been swapped at birth and I don't think it had a very happy outcome if I remember correctly. It is several lives disrupted and ruined.

What may have ruined lives is not the finding of the abducted daughter but her theft in babyhood in the first place.

'It might have been better not to know..' .. But imagine what could have happened if the poor girl met and had a relationship with a sibling (as they live in the same town).

How awful for the poor girl to have been taken away from all the people she has regarded as family. I can't see this ending well for her without superhuman efforts from everyone involved. It's the thing that worries me about Madeleine McCann - if she was found alive would she want to come back?

It is always better to know, how would she feel if she found out twenty, thirty or more years later she had been stolen at birth. She would more than likely feel very cheated that she didn't get to know her biological parents.

It's interesting how she clicked with her biological sister, apparently they became good friends even though there is four years age difference.

Annesixty - I read a story like that recently, it took place somewhere in SE France. The father of one of the girls had asked for a genetic test because the young woman didn't ressemble him or his wife. Somehow traced their real daughter.
But by that time (?20 years) both girls regarded the family they'd grown up with as their own.
I'm not sure of the outcome, I think they wanted to keep it private.

I think both families stayed as they were. The French woman's husband divorced her because there was so much comment in the village where they lived how unlike him the daughter was. They were awarded a large sum of money although the maternity home has long gone. The other family wanted to remain anonymous.