I was kidnapped by my nanny as a child. It wasn't until 51 years later that I was able to find my parents.

 

At the end of 2022, one of the longest stories about a kidnapped child finally being reunited with his parents came to an end.

It took more than half a century for the distraught parents to find their kidnapped daughter, and for the mother to be cleared of all suspicion for the terrible crime.

And the kidnapper will most likely avoid punishment...

We are going to the USA, to the state of Texas. On November 6, 1969, a daughter was born to Jeffrey Highsmith and Alta Apantenko, whom the couple named Melissa. However, family happiness was soon overshadowed by the departure of her husband. The mother raised the child alone while she had to work.

When she had to work long shifts, Alta Apantenko would call babysitters from classified ads. This is a popular service in the US; many students earn extra money by spending time with other people's children.

On August 23, 1971, Alta called as usual to an ad in the newspaper. She was answered by a girl who introduced herself as Ruth Johnson (later revealed to be a fictitious name).

It was agreed that the mother would leave the child with the neighbor before going to work, and she would hand little Melissa over to the nanny and the two would go to Alta's apartment together.

That's exactly what happened. But when the mother returned home from work, there was no sign of the babysitter or her daughter at home. At the time of her disappearance, Melissa was 1 year and 9 months old.

Alta goes to the police and becomes… the main suspect. It was not possible to identify the girl who came for Melissa under the guise of a nanny, although her external signs were announced throughout the state. No other clues were found.

Soon, the police began to suspect that the single mother decided to get rid of the child who was interfering with her life, and for this she brought in her unidentified accomplice.

Friends and neighbors complained against the unfortunate woman. The only person who supported her was her ex-husband.

A year later, Jeffrey and Alta were reunited. Three more children were born to the family. All these years, the parents did not give up and continued to search for their daughter.

A forensic artist from NCMEC created this image of Melissa Highsmith at the age of 51.

They wrote for newspapers and appeared on television shows. When the Internet came along, the Highsmith children created pages and communities on social media in memory of the sister they had never met.

But all was in vain until scientific advances came to the rescue.

In 2021, the father, Jeffrey Highsmith, was asked to take a DNA test for one of the public gene banks. There was little hope that Melissa's data would end up there.

After processing the test results, the man was stunned – his DNA was significantly similar to the DNA of three other people. They turned out to be brothers and sisters. There was no doubt that these three were close relatives of Jeffrey, his children or grandchildren.

The girl in the trio was not the right age to be Melissa.

A correspondence began with a woman named Melanie Walden, who lived in South Carolina, 1,500 kilometers from Texas. Jeffrey Highsmith and Alta Apantenko told the unknown elderly woman their story from half a century ago. That their baby had been stolen and that her DNA closely matched theirs.

At first, Melanie didn't believe a word of it. She had her own biological mother, a nurse by profession, who raised her alone. But still, the stranger from South Carolina agreed to take a DNA test. The result showed an almost perfect match with the DNA of Melissa Highsmith's parents.

The reunion of the separated parents and daughter took place on November 24, 2022, on the main American family holiday, Thanksgiving.

Naturally, there were many journalists.

Melanie/Melissa was welcomed by her father Jeffrey, her mother Alta, and her siblings who lived to see this happy moment. The third sister lived in Spain and promised to come later.

It is still difficult to say how the future life of the Highsmith family will develop. Melanie Walden said that she will change her name to Melissa Highsmith. She is disabled, after the death of her husband her three children were taken from her because she could not raise them for health reasons. What specific illness the woman has is still unknown.

Most interesting is the fate of the kidnapper, who is still alive. She is still the legal (according to documents) mother of Melanie Walden, whose name is not published, and is the same nanny under the name "Ruth Johnson" who abducted the child 51 years ago and fled.

But it is impossible to bring her to justice – the statute of limitations for such crimes in the state of Texas is only 20 years. Her motives are unknown.

Only the kidnapper can tell her side of the story, and given the excitement in the United States today about the family reunion, negotiations are probably already underway with the elderly woman for an interview or a book. For a good price.

And the important question is how Melanie, who has decided to become Melissa again, will treat the person she considered her own mother for more than 50 years. And who deprived her of her real parents...