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A BABY STOLEN from her sleeping mother’s arms shortly after birth has been found by the family through an astonishing coincidence 17 years later, South African police said today.
A 50-year-old woman has been arrested and charged with kidnapping after pupils noticed a remarkable likeness between the 17-year-old and her younger biological sister who started attending the same school this year.
DNA tests have confirmed that the older girl is the daughter of Celeste and Morne Nurse, who was snatched from Groote Schuur hospital as a three-day-old baby named Zephany in April 1997, local media reported.
The parents, who later had three more children, have celebrated Zephany’s birthday every year since she was kidnapped, never giving up hope that their first-born child would come back to them someday, the Cape Argus said.
Zephany grew up with a different name, and a different family, never knowing she was not their real daughter.
But last month her biological sister, Cassidy Nurse, started high school at the same school as Zephany, and fellow pupils noticed a startling resemblance she bore to a final-year student.
When Cassidy told her parents about the girl, they invited her home for a cup of coffee. When they saw the striking resemblance between the girls, they contacted the police.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel André Traut confirmed that a woman had been arrested. She and her husband, who is also in his fifties, have no other children.
“The suspect is being charged with kidnapping, fraud and contravening sections… of the Children’s Act, in that she fraudulently pretended that she was the biological mother of a child,” Traut said.
The kidnapped girl has since been placed in the care of the Department of Social Services of the Western Cape Government.
Without knowing it, the Nurse family had been living within a couple of kilometres of their kidnapped daughter.
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Oh Yes I Have!
@sean o’dhubhghaill: Oh No You Haven’t!
@sean o’dhubhghaill: happy memories of that at cork opera house !
@sean o’dhubhghaill: happy memories of that at cork opera house !
@hw007: that’s two happy memories.
Panto is just a fancy name for a bad theater performance…
@Dr. Emmett Lathrop Brown: oh no it isn’t
It’s behind you!
Nope never , Not even as a child. And it’s right to ask how much money rte have spent on this.
Would love to go to one, but my friends are far too straight laced. I personally think they’re a western cultural asset that stretches back centuries…a very English/Irish thing. I’m not gay but I love the camp nature of them. I mean come on…. How could you not laugh along. But sadly I think most people think it’s just for kids.
Local community pantos, not professional. If I was to spend money on tickets for a professional one, it wouldn’t be toy show the musical
Is there a ticket for everybody in the audience?
@Paul O Connor: If they are already in the audience, why do they need a ticket?
@sean o’dhubhghaill: to get back out?!!
I would rather watch Colin Farrell’s Alexander on repeat for a week.
Yes i have.2 hours ill never get back.
have your say