The Abduction of Kamiyah Mobley

Shanara and the Abduction

Shanara Mobley grew up in Jacksonville, Florida and often felt like she was on her own. Her mother was strict and, as the oldest sibling, Shanara felt like she took the brunt of the discipline. She was thrust into a life of difficulty when she was molested by someone she knew at the age of 9. The sexual abuse lasted for two years, and after that, Shanara spent much of her time on the streets. She was enrolled at Eugene Butler Middle School, but often skipped classes. At just 14-years-old Shanara found herself pregnant. Not long after, she suffered a miscarriage. 

The teenage girl was lost. She was couch surfing with friends and family and began lying about her age so she could get work as a babysitter. At 15, Shanara found herself having episodes of dizziness. Much to her surprise, she found out that was four months pregnant. The father of the baby was Craig Aiken, a man who lived across the street from Shanara’s Uncle Bubba’s house, where she’d been staying. Craig was 22-years-old. 

Despite still being young and not having found her path yet, Shanara was excited about the baby. She saw it as a sign and a reason to shape up and change her life. It felt right. Shanara set about getting everything she needed to prepare for her baby. With the help of donations from the church and a counselor at a local juvenile program, Shanara was able to fill her room at her Uncle’s Bubba’s house with a bassinet, baby clothing, and diapers. Shanara was super excited to find out that the baby she was having was going to be a little girl! Her doctor told her that if the baby hadn’t arrived by June 30th, she needed to come into the hospital to be induced, but Shanara refused. She said that the baby would come into the world on her own terms. Shanara admitted that she was also scared. Though she was excited to bring her baby into the world, birth was a scary thing.

Nine days later, on July 9th, Shanara’s water broke. Her Uncle Bubba and his girlfriend drove 15-year-old Shanara to University Medical Center in Jacksonville. When it was time for Shanara to have an epidural administered, her uncle and his girlfriend were asked to step out of the room. They left the hospital and didn’t come back for the birth. Shanara was alone, except for the medical staff. The baby’s father was unfortunately incarcerated on drug charges. On July 10th, 1998, at 6:55AM, Kamiyah Teresiah Tasha Mobley was born. She was eight pounds and 23 inches with a head full of dark curly hair. Shanara was exhausted, but so thrilled to be a mother. She couldn’t wait to dress Kamiyah up and show her off to her family and friends.

Later that morning, around 10AM, a young woman who looked to be in her late 20’s wearing green scrub bottoms and a floral scrub top entered room 328, where Shanara sat with her new baby. The woman said she was a nurse and was there to help. She was nice and professional. Shanara was happy to have someone keeping her company. The nurse even helped get Shanara cleaned up and into a new gown. The two women talked for almost five hours. Shanara let the nurse hold the baby, and she gushed over how precious the newborn was. Around 3PM, now realizing how exhausted she was, Shanara started to doze off. As Shanara started to fall asleep, the nurse picked up Kamiyah and told Shanara that she was going to take her baby to be checked for a fever. As the nurse brushed out of the room, she ran into an older woman. The woman, Velma Aiken, told the nurse that she was the baby’s grandmother and wanted to see her. She’d finally been able to get away from home and to the hospital to meet her first granddaughter. The nurse pulled the blanket down and gave Velma a quick peek of the baby. She told Velma that she was taking the baby to be checked for a fever and that she’d be right back. Velma recalled that the nurse had a large bag on her shoulder, which she found odd. As the nurse walked off with Kamiyah, Velma entered Shanara’s room. 

About twenty minutes later, Shanara and Velma phoned the nursery to find out when they’d be bringing Kamiyah back. They said that the baby wasn’t in the nursery, that she was supposed to be in the room with Shanara. The women immediately knew something wasn’t right. Shanara, exhausted from giving birth, drug herself out of her hospital room and into the hallway, screaming and crying for her missing newborn daughter. 

The Search

A code pink was immediately issued, alerting the hospital that a baby was missing. Shanara was devastated. Who was this woman who’d taken her daughter out of her room and seemingly disappeared into thin air? After almost an hour of still not being able to locate Kamiyah, the hospital security notified the Jacksonville Police Department. Officers arrived on scene to the University Medical Center and immediately began looking for Kamiyah, room by room and floor by floor. They searched bags, parked cars, cars leaving the hospital, nearby dumpsters, and throughout surrounding neighborhoods. 

Meanwhile, Shanara was understandably incredibly upset. In fact, she was so upset that the staff on the labor and delivery floor felt that they needed to contact security because of her language. After her newborn had just been abducted. WTFFFF. Officers responded to her room and began questioning her about the events leading up to Kamiyah going missing. Shanara said that the officer who questioned her was very aggressive and accusatory towards her. She said that he even punched the side of her bed, demanding that she tell him where Kamiyah was. She was scared, emotional, and angry and couldn’t understand what was happening. 

Officers also wanted to talk to the baby’s father, Craig. He’d been incarcerated for six months on drug charges. Several officers removed him from his cell and took him into a room. They told him that they had both good and bad news…the good news was that his daughter had been born healthy…the bad news was that she was now missing. They allowed him to use the phone to speak to Shanara, who was angry, yelling at Craig that he should’ve been there to protect her and Kamiyah. 

Officers searching the hospital spoke with as many witnesses as they could about whether they’d seen a woman matching the description that Shanara and Velma gave. After speaking to them, police found that the woman had come into the hospital around 1AM that morning and had been roaming the hallways. She spoke to many people and didn’t appear to be hiding from anyone. Those who spoke with her said she was polite and friendly. She hadn’t raised any red flags. The woman had spent quite a bit of time looking into the nursery, approximately two hours. All of the babies born that day were boys. Except for Kamiyah. Later on, the woman began asking specific questions, like if Shanara Mobley had given birth yet, and where was her room. She asked when the baby would be moved from the nursery to the mother’s room? Still, no one was alarmed.

Unfortunately, there were no photos of Baby Kamiyah yet, so the only picture that was able to be used in her search was a composite sketch made from Shanara’s description. The only thing that they had of Kamiyah was two footprints made in ink on a piece of paper. Even more frustrating, there was no clear image of the woman from hospital surveillance, so they were forced to make yet another composite sketch based off of the descriptions of witnesses. They gave a description on the news of a black woman, approximately 5’5 and 150-160 points, possibly wearing a wig. The sketches were distributed throughout Jacksonville. 

Shanara wasn’t only concerned about where her daughter was, but also about her daughter’s health. Kamiyah had been taken before state required neonatal tests could be performed. Shanara carried the gene for sickle-cell disease and had contracted group B strep infection while pregnant. Kamiyah was also born with an umbilical hernia, which was a bulging of the intestines through the abdomen in the area of the belly button, underneath the skin. The protrusion was about the size of a fist. Doctors were concerned that it could rupture, particularly if it wasn’t monitored and treated within the first six months of her life. 

The Investigation

The police continued to expand their search and were quick to get Shanara on television in hopes of garnering sympathy from the abductor. Five days after the abduction, the hospital put up a $50,000 reward for information or the location of Kamiyah Mobley. The tips began pouring into the police station. An employee at a car repair shop called 911 because a woman came in with a small infant, both who he thought resembled the sketches. Police tracked down the woman’s doctor who confirmed that the baby was hers. There were hundreds of similar calls coming in and police were investigating all of them. 

It wasn’t long before Kamiyah’s abduction became national news. CNN aired her story and America’s Most Wanted aired a short segment on their 10th anniversary episode. A week later, they aired a longer segment, which produced several hundred more leads. Investigators continued to follow up on leads and canvassing areas around the hospital.

The Jacksonville sheriff admitted that he thought the disappearance would be quickly solved, but he was incredibly wrong. Eventually, investigators made a request to the public, if anyone saw a black woman with an infant-age black baby girl, to call them. Law enforcement convened to re-interview and talk to each other and to the witnesses from the hospital that day, sharing the information they had, which unfortunately, wasn’t too much. The reward for Kamiyah’s return increased to $250,000.

Though it was clear that Kamiyah had been abducted, investigators were still suspicious of Shanara and her family. They thought that maybe one of them was involved with the woman who’d abducted Kamiyah. Craig, Kamiyah’s father, had been released from prison, but police quickly arrested him again for statutory rape, given that he’d impregnated 15-year-old Shanara when he was 22-years-old. Craig said that when he was in jail, investigators were trying to get him to tell them what Shanara did with the baby. He said that he never thought for a minute that Shanara or her family had anything to do with Kamiyah’s abduction.

Shanara went home and was left to look at all of the things that she’d prepared for her baby girl. She fell into a deep depression and made multiple suicide attempts, including overdosing on Benadryl. Shanara said that she’d be out driving and just think, maybe I should just drive off this cliff. Leads continued to come in, but always seemed to lead to dead ends. 

This Fucking Hospital

Still in disbelief that someone could’ve walked out of the hospital with a newborn baby that wasn’t theirs, Shanara and her family decided to sue the hospital for lack of security oversight. Doors to the stairwells weren’t locked and the surveillance video system didn’t work properly. In 1992, six years before Kamiyah’s abduction, then again, four months before Kamiyah’s kidnapping, the hospital was told to do better and to increase security. In ‘92, a security review urged the hospital to place electronic bracelets on all newborns, in which an alarm would go off if the bracelet passed through certain doors. They also urged them to strictly monitor maternity ward visitors. Obviously, none of these measures had been implemented, despite the fact that the hospital had the opportunity to do so when they opened a new wing in 1994. In ‘94, a woman reported having been raped in an elevator in the hospital that was stopped between floors. In 1996, a woman left the hospital with her two-day-old baby that she didn’t have custody of due to a history of child abuse. The child was still missing when Kamiyah was abducted. 

Meanwhile, in South Carolina

In the tiny town of Ruffin, South Carolina, in July of 1998, a woman opened her front door to find her daughter, 32-year-old Gloria Williams, standing with a tiny baby girl in her arms. Gloria told her mother that she’d been born in a Charleston hospital and she’d gotten a ride to Ruffin afterwards. Her mother had a million questions, but Gloria told her that she wanted her to look at how beautiful her new granddaughter was. She told her that her name was Alexis Kelli Manigo.

Gloria was a bit of a lost soul recently. She’d been married to a military office, but ended up getting a divorce. She grew up mostly in New York City, but often visited her grandparents who lived in South Carolina. After her divorce, she wanted to take herself and her two boys, Andre and Antwan, to where she felt most at home, and that was South Carolina. Gloria and her boys moved across the street from her parents and she was hired to work at a nursing home and a Holiday Inn reservation center. She eventually moved to a nearby small town named Walterboro. In 1997, Gloria had entered into a relationship with a man who ended up being physically abusive. When Antwan and Andre’s father found this out, Gloria ended up losing custody of her sons. The boys moved in with their father in Virginia and Gloria was left alone with the abuse. When she found out that she was pregnant, Gloria said that the man promised he’d stop hitting her, but that wasn’t the case. Gloria miscarried, attributing it to the stress she was under from the abuse. She didn’t tell anyone that she’d lost the baby. 

On the night of July 9th, 1998, Gloria left work, completely lost. She felt like her life was out of control. She’d lost her baby, her two sons, and was lying to everyone in her life about still being pregnant. She said that she got into her car to drive home, but instead drove south, ultimately ending up almost 200 miles away, in Jacksonville, Florida, at the University Medical Center.

That ain’t her baby

Gloria later said that at this point, she was on auto-pilot. She walked into the hospital and through the hallways, eventually making her way to the maternity wing. She looked through the glass at the nursery and thought about the baby she’d lost. She saw that there was only one baby girl in the nursery. Gloria eventually asked the nurse when the Mobley baby would be moved to her mother’s room. Around 10AM, she entered Shanara’s room and introduced herself as a nurse, saying that she was there to help. She helped the teenager get cleaned up and changed, she oohed and aahed over Shanara’s beautiful baby girl, even holding her. When Shanara asked for her to put Kamiyah in her bassinet or hand her to her, Gloria would do so. She sat in the room for almost five hours, talking to Shanara, who clearly welcomed the help and company. 

Around 3PM, as the new mother finally started to fall asleep, Gloria picked up the baby girl and told Shanara that she was going to get the baby’s temperature checked, then walked out of the room with her. A nurse stopped her and told her that people weren’t allowed to carry newborns in their arms, that she needed the bassinet (BUT BY ALL MEANS, STEAL THE BABY…JUST KEEP IT IN A BASSINET). She went back into the room to grab the bassinet and the pacifier, then Velma walked in. Gloria was startled, and gave Velma a quick peak at the baby before stepping out of the room. She placed baby Kamiyah in her large purse and walked out of the room, out of the hospital, and drove straight to South Carolina. 

Alexis Manigo/Kamiyah Mobley

Gloria had everything ready at her home for the baby. Her boyfriend, who was now in jail, was so excited for the baby and suggested the name Alexis. Gloria called her Lexi for short. Antwan and Andre doted on their baby sister. Antwan had two nicknames for his sister: Skittles, because it was her favorite candy, or Mrs. Me Too, because she had to be a part of everything! Alexis grew up like most children. She danced, cheered, and participated in a girls’ youth program. Gloria instilled her passion for God in Alexis, and the two were extremely active in the local church. Alexis did very well in school, always making the honor roll. She was even offered a spot in a junior pre-med program at Wake Forest University! She wanted to be a veterinarian when she grew up.

Gloria did everything she could think of to make sure that it would appear that Alexis was really her daughter. She kept “mementos” around the house to support her lies. She had altered a pink hospital tag that would come from the hospital nursery’s bassinet to say “Manigo baby”. She altered a birth certificate to match Alexis’ and her name. She used the social security number of a dead man to register Alexis for school. Gloria told Alexis that her biological father was a man named Charles Manigo who she’d broken up with before Alexis was born.  Alexis considered Gloria’s new husband, Wrenoskie Williams, to be her father. She couldn’t believe that she was getting away with what she’d done.

Finding Kamiyah

On January 12th, 2017, a car pulled up to Shanara Mobley’s house in Jacksonville. She was inside watching television with a friend. When a police officer knocked on the door, the first thing Shanara said was, “y’all found my baby?” The officer wouldn’t tell her what was going on, but nonchalantly asked Shanara to come to the police headquarters in downtown Jacksonville the following morning at 10:30AM. They told her nothing else. They also went to Velma’s home afterwards and told her the same thing. The only thing that officers said was that they had a new lead in the case of missing Kamiyah.

On January 13th, neighbors on a street in Walterboro, South Carolina looked outside to see multiple police cars outside of the home of 51-year-old Gloria Williams. Neighbors worried that something might have happened to one of the family members. When Gloria’s neighbors, friends, and family found out why the police were at Gloria’s home, they were beyond shocked.

Down in Florida, Shanara, Velma, and Craig were notified that Kamiyah had been found, alive and well. Shanara said that it was an odd scene in the police department, that no one seemed to think it was a big deal. She later found out that it took the police 12 hours after DNA confirmation to inform her that her daughter had been found. 

Police revealed that they’d received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that Alexis Manigo had been abducted by Gloria Williams in Jacksonville in 1998. NCMEC had reportedly received two tips, one from a friend that said Gloria had confessed to them, and someone who said they heard it from Alexis herself. Why yes, FROM ALEXIS. Two years before Gloria’s arrest, Alexis became upset with Gloria when she couldn’t provide her the documents she needed to apply for her first job. Gloria eventually confessed to Alexis that she’d kidnapped her. Alexis, using the internet, was ultimately able to piece everything together. She even called Shanara once, but hung up when she answered. Alexis felt that despite what Gloria had done, she was still the woman who’d raised her.

In the police department in Jacksonville, a victim’s advocate was brought in to help the family. Shanara was confused and upset that the advocate kept referring to her daughter as Alexis. Regardless, she was unbelievably excited to FaceTime with her daughter. Still though, the scene at the police station felt strange to Shanara. 

Gloria was charged with kidnapping and interfering with the custody of a child and taken into custody. When Alexis was finally able to see her in a holding cell, she cried, telling the judge that her mother wasn’t a felon. Police remained suspicious of Shanara and her family though, and continued searching for a connection between her and Gloria, but there was none.

One Big Happy Family?

Craig and Shanara drove to Walterboro immediately to reunite with their daughter. On January 14th, the two walked into the police department, where Alexis was waiting. Alexis later said that she did a double take when she saw Craig…there was so much resemblance between her and her biological father. The reunion between the three lasted for 45 minutes, and everyone was smiling and laughing. Craig told her that he’d always believed they’d find her. The three even took their first selfie, with Alexis between her biological mother and father. They told her that she had 13 brothers and sisters from both sides of the family in Florida. Craig was married to a woman named Shannon, who couldn’t wait to meet Alexis. It seemed as though a huge weight had been lifted from Shanara and Craig.

Underneath though, Alexis was incredibly confused, sad, angry, and upset. She was happy to meet Shanara and Craig, but she missed Gloria. She didn’t even have a valid ID so she couldn’t visit her in jail. Gloria was held withou bail due to her being too big of a flight risk. She was transferred to a prison in Jacksonville to await trial. Alexis called Gloria everyday and the two sent letters back and forth. Shanara couldn’t understand Alexis needing and wanting to still speak to Gloria. She initially thought that now that they’d found her missing child, things would get much better and her and her daughter’s relationship would blossom. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

A few months after Gloria’s arrest, the first Mother’s Day since Alexis was found came. Shanara was excited to hear from her, but the day passed without a single phone call, text message, or card from Alexis. She was incredibly upset when she found out that Alexis sent two Mother’s Day cards to Gloria in prison. It wasn’t the only thing that bothered her about the new relationship. Alexis would respond to Kamiyah if she, Craig, or her new brothers and sisters called her that, but she was still referred to as Alexis by others. She wouldn’t stop calling Gloria ‘mom’ and said that she wouldn’t stop loving her or other members of her old family. She felt that Alexis loved Craig, but not her. The two got along very well and hung out often. Craig traveled to Walterboro frequently to pick Alexis up and hang out with her. Craig said that it was like Alexis and him were never apart, that they got along so easily. 

However, Alexis and Shanara didn’t speak for all of June after the Mother’s Day incident. Shanara said that Alexis then called in her July and told her that she was coming down to Jacksonville, and asked her what they were doing for her birthday. Shanara responded that they weren’t doing anything because no one did anything for her on Mother’s Day. 

Craig had his own approach. He said that he let his daughter talk about Gloria. It was extremely difficult, but he did it, that it wouldn’t have helped anyone to tell Alexis how much he hated Gloria. So he just listened to Alexis and enjoyed her company.

Alexis said in a later interview that what she’d been through was hard, but not horrible enough to ruin the rest of her life. Some thought that she was really hurting on the inside, but wanted everyone to think that she was okay. 

Thirteen months following Gloria’s arrest, the state announced that they were offering to drop the possibility of a life sentence if she changed her plea to guilty. The plea included a max sentence of 22 years minus time served. Her sentencing hearing would be on May 18th, 2018. Alexis said in an interview that she hoped Gloria wouldn’t receive a long sentence, but she understood that she’d committed a crime. 

At the sentencing hearing, there was no jury, only witnesses being called to the stand. Shanara took the stand and told the judge about the nightmares she’d had, her depression, and suicide thoughts and attempts that she’d suffered from over the past 18 years. It was the first time that she’d seen Gloria in person since the day she walked out her hospital room with her newborn baby girl. Shanara said that she felt that Gloria still had a strong hold on her life and Alexis’. She told them how upset she was that she didn’t get to be a part of her daughter’s first steps or first days of school or prom. When asked what she thought was the most fitting punishment for Gloria, Shanara responded with death. She begged the judge for a no contact order between Gloria and Alexis.

Craig also took the stand to read a statement, echoing much of what Shanara said and telling the judge that he thought Gloria should receive the harshest sentence possible. Gloria finally took the stand and told the judge how she cared for Alexis and gave her a good childhood. She spoke directly to Shanara and Craig and apologized to them both. Alexis sat in the courtroom and listened to everyone’s testimony.

Nine days later came another Mother’s Day. Shanara received no communication from Alexis. On June 8th, the judge reconvened everyone to announce Gloria’s sentence. Alexis didn’t come to court that day. The judge said that there was truly no winner that day, that everyone was suffering. He found Gloria guilty of kidnapping in the first degree and third degree felony of interference with custody. She was sentenced to 18 years in prison with credit for time served. 

Initially following the sentencing, the weak relationship between Alexis and Shanara fell apart. Shanara even blocked her on her cell phone. Alexis reportedly stopped going to counseling and seemed to withdraw from her relationship with Craig. At one point, Shanara even said that she almost wished that they hadn’t been reunited. This was as of 2018. In early 2022, an appeal was filed for early release of Gloria, requesting a sentence of nine years in prison, then nine years of monitored probation. The judge denied this request. 

As of most recently and based on her social media, Alexis has her name as Kamiyah Mobley on Facebook. Her Instagram shows both of her names and her bio reads, “Florida baby, but the south raised me.” She has posted photos of her with Shanara and Craig, calling them mom and dad. Shanara gave birth to several other children after Kamiyah’s abduction. She credited these children with saving her life and renewing her purpose after the kidnapping. It seems as though the relationship between Shanara, Craig, and their once-missing child has finally started to strengthen and grow.