Publish date: 2024-03-05

The man who raised Kamiyah Mobley as his own daughter for 18 years says it's a 'huge shock' to learn that his ex-girlfriend had actually abducted her from a Florida hospital when she was a baby.

Charles Manigo says he only found out he was not Kamiyah's biological father last week when his former partner Gloria Williams, 51, was arrested in South Carolina over the girl's abduction back in 1998.

Manigo tearfully told ABC News the couple had named the girl Alexis Kelly Manigo after Williams led him to believe she had given birth to her while he was away.

They raised her in Walterboro, South Carolina as Alexis Kelly and even shared custody of her when they split in 2003. 

The heartbroken man said that it's a 'million dollar question' as to why Williams did what she did, but as devastating as this situation is, it doesn't change anything. 

'It doesn’t change any feelings I have for her, the same love I have for her the day I held her to now, to 43 more years, she is my child,' Manigo said passionately, moments after showing off a tattoo of her name on his arm. 

'I cant cut that off, I won’t cut that off.' 

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Charles Manigo, the man who raised Kamiyah Mobley as his own daughter for 18 years, was devastated to learn his ex-girlfriend had abducted her from a Florida hospital as a baby

Manigo told ABC News he was devastated to learn the daughter he had been raising was not biologically his

The heartbroken man said that it's a 'million dollar question' as to why Williams did what she did, but as devastating as this situation is, it doesn't change anything. Above he shows off a tattoo of his daughter's name

Manigo shared that for the past 18 years, he's been present for all of the girl's milestones, including her prom.

'She was the love of my life,' Manigo said. 

'One of the hardest things she said on Friday was, 'Dad I love you,' even though she knows what's going on.

'She's still my child. I understand what's going on, but she's still my child.' 

Kamiyah was reunited with her biological parents Shanara Mobley and Craig Aiken on Saturday just days after learning the shocking secret of how she was snatched at birth by the woman who raised her. 

Williams is thought to have suffered a miscarriage about a week before she drove the three hours from South Carolina to Florida and abducted baby Kamiyah in 1998. 

It is believed she then passed off Kamiyah as her own daughter to family and friends, who said they never suspected a thing. 

Williams was arrested on Friday at her home and will be extradited to Florida to face charges of kidnapping.  

Manigo said his ex-girlfriend Gloria Williams had told him she had given birth to the baby in South Carolina while he was away back in 1998. She is thought to have suffered a miscarriage a week before she kidnapped Kamiyah from a Florida hospital

Kamiyah Mobley, now 18, was found living in South Carolina on Friday living under the name Alexis Manigo. Gloria Williams, 51, was arrested on Friday for kidnapping the girl from Florida

Kamiyah Mobley, 18, posed for a selfie with her biological parents Shanara Mobley and Craig Aiken in an emotional family reunion on Saturday in South Carolina

Kamiyah posed with her biological parents for their first-ever family photo on Saturday when they met behind closed doors at the Colleton County Jail where Williams is currently in custody.

After spending nearly an hour with his daughter, Aiken, 41, said of seeing her for the very first time: 'It was the best day of my life. It was a beautiful, beautiful day. We are so happy. I hope the world is rejoicing with us.'

Aiken, whose wife Shannon was also present, said they chose not to discuss the alleged kidnapping, instead focusing on getting to know the daughter he and Shanara feared they would never see.

'We laughed, we chatted, we didn't allow any negative thoughts. We didn't talk about the kidnapping,' he told Dailymail.com

'It's going to be hard for her to turn this into a positive. She's got very mixed emotions about the woman who raised her.

'But we are going to be there for her, this is just the start of a wonderful future.' 

Manigo says he only found out he was not Kamiyah's biological father last week when his former partner Gloria Williams, 51, was arrested in South Carolina

Kamiyah Mobley, pictured with her birth mother Shanara Mobley on Saturday, was snatched from her mom's arms in a Florida hospital in July 1998 when she was a newborn

Kamiyah Mobley (left in a composite created by police) was kidnapped by a woman pretending to be a nurse (right) 18 years ago

Authorities revealed Kamiyah had an inclination' some months ago that she may have been kidnapped before Williams was arrested on Fridayd. Pictured above moments after birth

The mystery of Kamiyah Mobley became a national sensation when she was stolen from her mother Shanara Mobley's arms at the University Medical Center in Jacksonville in July 1998. 

Authorities revealed Kamiyah had an inclination' some months ago that she may have been kidnapped before Williams was arrested on Friday.

Kamiyah burst into tears as she said goodbye to Williams when she was jailed.

'I love you mom,' she told Williams as the two shared a moment, separated by a mesh screen in the Colleton County Jail.

Williams blew Kamiyah a kiss as the teenager cried out 'Momma' and told her abductor she was 'praying' for her.  

Just hours after police revealed that Kamiyah had been found, the teen took to Facebook to defend her abductor.

'My mother raised me with everything I needed and most of all everything I wanted,' she wrote. 'My mother is no felon.' 

Jacksonville police said the teenager found out on Friday morning that the woman who raised her in Walterboro her whole life was not her real mother.

Within hours Manigo was able to reconnect over FaceTime with her biological parents, who both cried 'tears of joy' after a detective told them their baby had been found.

Meanwhile Williams, who also has two biological children who grew up with Kamiyah, will be extradited back to Florida as soon as possible and is being held without bond, according to Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams.  

She could face up to life in prison if convicted.

'I love you mom,' Manigo told Williams as the two touched hands between the mesh screen

Williams then waived extradition to Jacksonville, where she will face kidnapping charges

The news came as a shock to neighbors who said Williams seemed like any regular member of the community.  

Williams was employed as a social worker and attended church every Sunday, where she also led the youth program. 

She had worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs' hospital in Charleston and also volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, according to CBS News. 

'The family is a good family,' said Ruben Boatright, who has known Williams for 15 years and watched Kamiyah grow up. 

'You don't want to think bad thoughts of anyone in your family, and that she would do something like that,' he told WJXT. 

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'But then it's right there staring you in the face. So you don't know what to say or do.'

Boatright said Kamiyah was a well-mannered teen who was 'very well read' and 'disciplined'. 

He said his opinion of Williams hasn't changed, despite the news. 

'She did that 18 years ago,' he said. 'Eighteen years ago she was a young lady and you don't know what her emotional state was then.' 

Boatright said the surprising news has spread like wildfire in the small community. 

'At the fish market, the hair dresser, the gas station, they're all talking about it,' he said.

Investigators are currently speaking with Williams' family to learn more about the abduction. Authorities have not yet determined Williams' links to Jacksonville. 

Tears of joy flowed freely for Kamiyah's biological parents Craig Aiken (pictured left on Friday) and Shanara Mobley (pictured right in 1998 after her daughter was abducted)

Just hours after police revealed that Kamiyah Mobley had been found, Manigo took to Facebook to defend her abductor

A cousin of Gloria Williams said the revelation was 'brand new to all of us.'

Tesha Stephens spoke briefly with reporters on Friday outside the Walterboro home where Kamiyah was raised. 

She said she didn't know how the young woman discovered her past and that the news was 'something brand new to all of us'. 

'Right now she's holding up... She's processing everything and she's probably going to have to take this day-by-day,' she said. 'This was something brand new to all of us.' 

Susan Alls, Williams' aunt, remains unconvinced that Kamiyah is not truly part of their family.

'There has to be something going on with the DNA, whatever they did,' she said.   

The sensational news solves a cold case that accumulated more than 2,500 tips and captivated both the city and the country for more than a decade.

A tip received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children last year led Jacksonville police to South Carolina.

It was there they found an 18-year-old woman with Kamiyah Mobley's birth date but a different name and quickly discovered that fraudulent documents had been used to establish her identity. 

A DNA sample from the teen was taken and submitted to a crime lab, where it was matched with the original newborn DNA taken the day Kamiyah was born. The test confirmed the teen was, in fact, Kamiyah.   

Gloria Williams, 51, (left) has been arrested and charged with kidnapping and interference with custody. Pictured right is a sketch police released of the suspect after the kidnapping 

Williams was arrested on Friday morning at her home (pictured) in Walterboro, South Carolina. Kamiyah was not present at the time. She was raised there with Williams' two biological kids

The news came as a shock to neighbors who said Williams seemed like any regular member of the community and had raised Kamiyah to be well-read and disciplined  

Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said Kamiyah appears to be in 'good health' and a 'normal 18-year-old woman'. 

He said she first 'had an inclination' a couple of months ago that she may have been involved in the national kidnapping case in some way. Authorities didn't say why she suspected this.

Police said Kamiyah plans on staying in South Carolina for the time being.

'She's taking it as well as you can imagine,' Williams said. 'We have victim's advocates up there, she has a lot to process, a lot to think about.' 

Court records show that Gloria Williams has an extensive criminal record and has been found guilty of writing fraudulent checks and welfare fraud. 

She was also charged with a minor crime for disturbing the peace two months after Kamiyah was abducted, Jacksonville.com reports. 

The sheriff said Kamiyah had lived at the home with Williams and other members of her kidnapper's family. There are no other suspects at this time.

Records show that Williams and her family were evicted at least six times from six different addresses. 

Kamiyah is currently living with Williams and her husband in a Habitat for Humanity home that had been built for them.

Williams' husband was on the road for work at the time of her arrest on Friday.   

Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said Kamiyah (pictured left as a child and right in a current photo) appears to be in 'good health' and a 'normal 18-year-old woman' 

Kamiyah had shared numerous photos of her with Williams on her Facebook page

It was a tip last year that led Jacksonville police to South Carolina, where they found an 18-year-old woman with Kamiyah Mobley's birth date but a different name

It was just after 3pm on July 10, 1998 when a woman wearing a blue floral smock and green scrub pants took eight-hour-old Kamiyah in a white blanket and disappeared. 

Authorities said the woman had roamed the halls of the University Medical Center, now UF Health Jacksonville, for 14 hours, according to The Florida Times-Union. 

She had spent five hours with Kamiyah and her mother Shanara, who had just turned 16 at the time, before saying the baby had a fever. Nurses thought she was a member of their family.

But by the time the hospital staff was notified, it was too late.

Every floor and room of the hospital was searched. Police called bus and train stations and airports to look out for baby Kamiyah. The FBI became involved.

There were no pictures of Kamiyah and only grainy footage from the hospital surveillance camera of the suspect. 

Authorities made a composite to try and illustrate what the newborn looked like. Sketches were released of the mysterious woman who had posed as a nurse. 

Kamiyah's father Craig Aiken (pictured) revealed he has already spoken to her on FaceTime

Kamiyah's mother Shanara Mobley (pictured two days after the abduction) was just 16 years old when her daughter was taken from her arms

No pictures of Kamiyah had been taken before she was kidnapped, so police had to match babies to her footprints (pictured) while following leads 

The case took over the county, where women who matched the sketch were stopped in local grocery stores and babies' footprints were compared to those taken from Kamiyah when she was born.

A $250,000 reward was offered and Kamiyah's story was told on CNN and America's Most Wanted.  

Craig was in jail at the time of her kidnapping on a drug charge, according to WJXT. 

Her disappearance led to even more time behind bars when Aiken, 19 at the time, revealed he was the father - and that Kamiyah had been conceived when Shanara was 15. 

Aiken pleaded guilty and spent five months in prison, wondering if he would ever see the baby daughter he never had the chance to meet. 

Craig (pictured above) was in jail at the time of her kidnapping on a drug charge

Velma Aiken, the paternal grandmother of Kamiyah, gets a congratulatory hug from a family member on Friday

Shanara, who used to cut a piece of cake and put it in the freezer for each one of Kamiyah's birthdays, received a $1.5million settlement in 2000 after suing the hospital. 

As the years passed the mother said she woke up every day knowing her firstborn was still out there - but that there was no way to reach or talk to her.

'I wonder, 'What does she like? What kind of food? What kind of colors? How smart is she? Does she have long pretty hair? Does she have my eyelashes?''' Shanara said in 2008.

Now, she may finally have the chance to find out. 

'I always hoped and prayed this day would happen. I always felt she was alive. I always felt she would find us,' said Craig.

'Now we have the rest of our lives together.'

Kamiyah was taken from the the University Medical Center, now UF Health Jacksonville (pictured), on July 10, 1998 just eight hours after she was born 

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