Kriti Mehrotra
Directed by Jeffrey W. Byrd, Lifetime’s ‘Stolen by My Mother: The Kamiyah Mobley Story‘ is a crime thriller drama film that delves into how sometimes one’s entire reality can be a lie concocted by their family. This was precisely the case for Alexis Kelli Manigo, who learned at the tender age of 18 that the people who raised her or grew up around her were not, in fact, her biological loved ones. She had no idea at the time she would ultimately be able to establish a connection with her birth family while also forgiving those who lied to her, making her tale incredibly inspiring.
Kamiyah Mobley Was Kidnapped Hours After She Was Born
Kamiyah Teresiah Tasha Mobley was born on July 10, 1998, to Shanara “Starr” Mobley and Craig Aiken at the University of Florida Health Jacksonville. Her mother was merely 16 years old at the time, whereas her father was incarcerated for drug possession, delivery, and impregnating a minor as an adult — he was 19 when she was conceived. Therefore, Starr didn’t have much support in the hospital room, allowing a woman impersonating a nurse to enter, assist her, and converse until she was distracted. That’s when fake hospital personnel stole an 8-hour-old Kamiyah and left.
According to Starr’s own accounts, the woman who took her little girl was possibly between 25 and 35 years old and likely wore glasses and a wig to hide how she really looked. Nevertheless, owing to the circumstances, there was a period at first when it was believed Kamiyah was likely kidnapped by someone in the Mobley family, yet that never panned out. All ensuing investigations sadly also led nowhere, that is, until new tips broke the case wide open in 2017 and led authorities all the way to Walterboro, South Carolina.
Kamiyah Mobley Was Raised With Everything She Could Ask For
It was a woman named Gloria Williams who dressed in a floral blue smock and green scrub pants, walked into a hospital, took another woman’s baby, and walked out. According to records, she was 33 years old at the time, and had lost a child to a miscarriage a mere week prior, so it is believed that she abducted Kamiyah to replace her lost child while also keeping things smooth with her then-allegedly-abusive partner. She also forged new documents to create an entirely new identity for the baby, naming her Alexis Kelli Manigo.
The Manigo-Williams family eventually relocated to Walterboro, South Carolina, where Alexis/Kamiyah was raised alongside Gloria’s two other children without any bias. In fact, she once asserted the woman she believed to be her mother was “no felon” because she always ensured to provide her with “everything” she could have needed. However, things changed in 2015, when she was a senior at Colleton County High School, as she realized Gloria had started acting suspiciously the moment she asked for some documents. All she had asked her for was her birth certificate and social security card so as to apply for a job, but her mother refused to give it to her, which she claimed was uncharacteristic.
Alexis/Kamiyah had no idea at the time that the refusal was because her real identity was hidden from her, that is, until she started looking deeper into the matter and made connections. Because there were no photographs of the little girl before her abduction, a computer-generated sketch of her had been used in the media for years, along with specifications of some of her distinctive features. It was through this that she was initially identified, only for DNA tests to confirm the potential match for good in 2017. As a result, Gloria was arrested on charges of kidnapping and interfering with custody.
Kamiyah Mobley Maintains She Has Two Mothers and Families
Although Gloria pleaded guilty to Kamiyah’s kidnapping in February 2018, asserting she acted alone in the crime, the young woman she raised as her daughter did not want her to even be charged. That’s why she wrote letters in her support, publicly stood by her, and even clarified in court that she still considers her her mother in every sense of the term. However, it’s imperative to note that she did so while also building relationships with her biological parents, grandparents, and her three maternal biological sisters.
Gloria was sentenced to 18 years in prison on June 8, 2018, but she appealed for it to be reduced to 9 years in 2022. Her motion included a handwritten letter from Kamiyah, in which she again reiterated, “I would like to make it very clear that she is my mother.” However, her plea was denied. Nevertheless, the girl who was once kidnapped continues to remain in touch with her, even though she has since relocated to Florida to be closer to her biological family. We should also mention that although she now mostly goes by her given name Kamiyah, she doesn’t mind being called Alexis by those who knew her during the first 18 years of her life. In other words, it appears she has essentially viewed the entire ordeal as a blessing, embracing both her mothers and families to the best of her abilities.
Read More: Stolen by My Mother The Kamiyah Mobley Story: Filming Locations and Cast Details
