Between January 4 and January 7, 2011, NYPD detectives collected DNA samples from Joy White, Carl Tyson, and the woman calling herself Carlina White.
The samples were sent to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the City of New York.
On January 18, 2011, the OCME reported that the DNA matched.
The woman who had grown up as Nejdra Nance in Bridgeport, Connecticut, was genetically confirmed to be Carlina Renae White, the infant daughter of Joy White and Carl Tyson, stolen from Harlem Hospital on August 4, 1987.
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## Before the Test Results: The Human Side of Waiting
The DNA confirmation came back on January 18. But the emotional reality of what had happened — the reality of two families suddenly confronted with each other — did not wait for the laboratory.
Joy White and her family met the woman calling herself Carlina before the results were official. They were that certain. Joy’s sister, Lisa White-Heatley, described a dinner during which the family cooked and spent time together, and said it felt as though Carlina “had always been with them.” Joy’s mother, Elizabeth White, said she was happy — and that she was happiest once the DNA results came back, because then the certainty was not just emotional but documented.
Carl Tyson told reporters that his heart dropped when he saw her. She told him not to cry.
Carlina spent the days between her initial contact and the DNA results traveling between Atlanta and New York. She brought her daughter, Samani, who was five years old. She stayed at a Manhattan hotel with Joy White after the DNA results confirmed the identification. She met siblings — including Sheena White, who told her that Sheena’s twins were already calling Carlina “Aunt Lina.”