She followed that thread to where it led. The woman who had spent twenty-three years looking at the world as Nejdra Nance found, in a database built to find missing children, the one she had been looking for: herself.
—
*Slug:* carlina-white-nejdra-nance-ncmec-missing-baby-self-identified-abduction-1987
*Meta description:* Carlina White was stolen from Harlem Hospital at 19 days old and raised as Nejdra Nance. At 23, she found herself on a missing children’s website. Here’s how she did it.
*Category:* True Crime / Identity Mystery
*Thumbnail hook:* She spent years searching missing-child databases online. Then she found a baby photo with her birthmark — and everything changed.
*Tracking ID:* BM-CANDIDATE-058
—
## Source Notes
**Sources fully read and used:**
– **Marie Claire — “What Happened to Carlina White?”** (https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/a34385924/what-happened-to-carlina-white): Abduction, childhood as Nejdra Nance, NCMEC contact via Cassandra Johnson, reunion complexity, legal outcome, Pettway’s 12-year sentence. Used throughout.
– **FBI / DOJ press release — Manhattan U.S. Attorney charges Ann Pettway** (https://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2011/manhattan-u.s.-attorney-charges-ann-pettway-with-1987-kidnapping-from-harlem-hospital): Charges, dates (Jan 4–7 DNA collection, Jan 18 OCME match, Jan 23 arrest, Jan 24 charge), Pettway’s admissions to FBI, Preet Bharara and Janice Fedarcyk quotes, mandatory minimum and maximum exposure. Chronology note: DOJ plea document reportedly contains a January 2010 detective-interview date that appears to conflict with the January 2011 identification events; this article uses the January 2011 chronology consistent with all contemporaneous news sources.
– **DNAinfo — “Harlem Hospital Kidnapping Victim Reunites with Her Mom 23 Years Later”** (https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20110119/harlem/harlem-hospital-kidnapping-victim-reunites-with-her-mom-23-years-later): Joy White age 16 at time of abduction, NCMEC contact on Jan 4, Detective Martin Brown quote, DNA comparison of Joy, Carl, and Carlina, reunion before results confirmed.