South African woman denies 1997 baby kidnap

A South African woman who allegedly kidnapped a baby from a hospital nearly 19 years ago and raised the child as her own has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against her.

The woman pleaded not guilty in a Cape Town court to kidnapping, fraud, and breaking South Africa’s child protection laws.

Murmurs of disbelief could be heard in the packed courtroom, where the child’s biological parents also sat.

The 50-year-old woman allegedly snatched a newborn baby from her sleeping mother’s bedside in 1997.

The baby, now a teenager, was found last year after befriending her biological sister at school, not knowing they were related.

The mother of the newborn baby cried in court as she recounted how she woke up to find her little girl had vanished.

Celeste Nurse, 36, gave evidence just metres from the 50-year-old woman accused of kidnapping her baby, whom the mother had named Zephany Joy Nurse.

The accused woman cannot be named for legal reasons.

The kidnapped girl, now 18, was found in February last year in a bizarre twist.

In her final year of high school, a younger daughter of the Nurse family began to attend high school and was told by friends about another student who had an uncanny resemblance to her.

The two girls met and bonded instantly, despite the four-year age difference.

The younger daughter told her parents about her new friend who looked just like her. Still hopeful, the family invited the girl to their home for coffee.

After seeing her, the father immediately contacted the police who revived their investigation into the kidnapping.

The police found that the couple claiming to be the teenager’s parents could not prove that she was their biological daughter, and DNA tests were carried out, showing that she was the daughter of Celeste Nurse.

In court, Ms Nurse recounted how Zephany had been stolen at Cape Town’s Groote Schuur hospital on March 30, 1997, when she was just three days old.

Ms Nurse said she was sleeping under medication in a bed close to the ward door. She said she was groggy when she awoke after hearing her newborn crying.

“I saw a person sitting at the door” dressed as a nurse, she said.

“She asked me ‘can I pick up the child?’ I said ‘yes’. That’s all I can remember until a nurse woke me and asked where the baby was.

“I asked ‘what do you mean, the nurse was just here with the baby’. We ran everywhere in the hospital. The baby was nowhere to be found. Missing. Gone.”

The suspect had a series of miscarriages before allegedly stealing Zephany from the hospital.

She has been free on bail on condition that she does not contact potential state witnesses — including her own husband and Zephany.

She faces a minimum of five years in jail if convicted of kidnapping.

The family had always celebrated their missing daughter’s birthday on April 28.

All that time, Zephany was living just a couple of miles from her biological parents.