Newborn abducted from hospital found alive 18 years later, sheriff says

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Stolen hours after her birth in a Florida hospital 18 years ago, a young woman who came to suspect she didn't belong with the people who raised her has been found in South Carolina, where police charged the woman she long believed was her mother with kidnapping.

DNA analysis identified the young woman, who now knows her birth name: Kamiyah Mobley, Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said Friday at a news conference. He said she is in good health, but understandably overwhelmed.

"She's taking it as well as you can imagine. She has a lot to process," the sheriff said. "I can't even begin to comprehend it."

Police arrested Gloria Williams, 51, of Walterboro, South Carolina, at the home Mobley was living in and charged her with kidnapping and interference with custody.

Mobley was only eight hours old when she was taken by a woman posing as a nurse from her young mother at University Medical Center in 1998. A massive search ensued, with helicopters circling the hospital and the city on high alert, and thousands of tips came in over the years, but authorities apparently had no clue where she was.

All that time, police said, she was being raised under a different name in Walterboro. Then some months ago, the young woman "had an inclination" that she may have been kidnapped, the sheriff said.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reached out to the cold case detectives at the sheriff's office, and Mobley provided a swab of her cheek for DNA analysis that proved the match, the sheriff said.

The young woman's birth family is rejoicing, but the young woman has been provided with counseling. How and when she'll reconnect with them is up to her.

The Mobleys never forgot.

Her mother, Shanara Mobley, told the Florida Times-Union newspaper on the 10th Anniversary of the kidnapping that on every one of Kamiyah's birthdays, she wrapped a piece of birthday cake in foil.

"It's stressful to wake up every day, knowing that your child is out there and you have no way to reach her or talk to her," Mobley told the paper in 2008.

"She's 18, an adult and clearly a victim in this case," the sheriff said. "A case like we have not seen in this country for a long time."

Kamiyah's biological father spoke to ABC News over the phone.

Craig Aiken said "there's no other way of putting it... I am very happy." He said he had a meeting with the Sheriff and the baby's mother Shanara where they were told together that Kamiyah had been found alive and well. Aiken said they were able to speak with Kamiyah over the phone and on skype. "I can't even explain it," he said. "It was like the end of a nightmare."

Aiken said Kamiyah should be in Jacksonville very soon.

The paternal grandmother of the young woman who just learned her birth name - Kamiyah Mobley - says she looks just like her daddy. Velma Aiken says that when they spoke over video chat, the young woman acted like she had been talking with them throughout the years, and said she would soon meet them in person.

Aiken knows that her long-lost granddaughter will need time to come to terms with her new identity, but she says her prayers have already been answered. She says she always asked God, "Don't let me die before I see my grand baby.'"

WLS-TV contributed to this report.