'I thought it was too late': Grandmother of girl who was abducted from hospital as a baby says she never expected to see her again - but FORGIVES her kidnapper 

  • Velma Aiken has spoken of joy of granddaughter Kamiyah Mobley being found 
  • She thought she would never see her again after she was snatched from hospital 
  • But Kamiyah, now 18, was found to be living with her abductor Gloria Williams 
  • Williams has been arrested for kidnap and is being held in South Carolina jail 
  • But Mrs Aiken says she forgives Williams and is only focusing on her granddaughter 

By Jennifer Newton for MailOnline

Published: 12:18 EST, 16 January 2017 | Updated: 13:29 EST, 16 January 2017

The grandmother of teenager Kamiyah Mobley who was snatched from a Florida hospital just hours after she was born has told how she thought it would be too late to see her ever again.

But Velma Aiken says she forgives the woman who kidnapped her granddaughter and then raised her as her own.  

Kamiyah, 18, became a national sensation when she was stolen from her mother Shanara Mobley's arms at the University Medical Center in Jacksonville in July 1998.

Velma Aiken, grandmother of Kamiyah Mobley, who was abducted from hospital as a baby. Appearing on Good Morning Britain alongside a local news reporter, she said how she always thought it would be too late to see her ever again

She was kidnapped by by Gloria Williams who posed as a nurse and then raised Kamiyah as her own in South Carolina.

But last week, Jacksonville Police said the teenager found out on Friday morning that the woman who raised her in Walterboro her whole life was not her real mother.

Since then Williams has been arrested at her home and will be extradited to Florida to face charges of kidnapping.

Meanwhile Kamiyah has been reunited with her birth mother and biological father Craig Aiken.

And now Mr Aiken's mother Velma has spoken out saying she never imagined that her grandaughter would ever be found.

In her first TV interview with Good Morning Britain, she told hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid of the night Kamiyah was snatched.

Sitting alongside TV reporter John Engel, she said: 'It bought a lot of sadness to us and we were hoping that they would have been able to find the kidnapper that night but it wasn't possible and then I just figured that at the time it was going to be too late.'

Kamiyah with her abductor Gloria Williams. The 18-year-old had lived with her since being snatched 

Williams, left, has now been arrested on kidnap charges for stealing Kamiyah from the hospital just hours after she was born, pictured 

However, now Mrs Aiken says she is overjoyed she will finally be reunited with her granddaughter in the coming days.

She added: 'I feel real good about it. I'm so glad of the joy part of it because from the beginning it was so sad, so I feel real good now.

'I haven't really been reunited with her [in person] yet, but I did talk to her on FaceTime and she seemed real good, she seemed like she'd been talking to us all the time.'

And even when host Piers Morgan asked Mrs Aiken towards her feelings to Williams, who abducted her granddaughter, she said she wasn't focusing on that.

She explained: 'To be honest, I don't have any feeling towards her, I'm so focussed on and so glad they found my grandbaby.

Kamiyah has been reunited with her birth mother Shanara Mobley and biological father Craig Aiken at the weekend

Williams had passed off Kamiyah as her own daughter to family and friends, who said they never suspected a thing

'I haven't really focussed on her. I [did] have some [bad] feelings towards her in the beginning, but it's just such a joy to know that I got my grandbaby back.'

Kamiyah was only eight hours old in 1998 when she was taken from a Jacksonville, Florida, hospital by Williams posing as a nurse.

A massive search produced nothing until a tip received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children last year led Jacksonville police to South Carolina.

It was there they found an 18-year-old woman with Kamiyah Mobley's birth date but a different name and quickly discovered that fraudulent documents had been used to establish her identity.

A DNA sample from the teen was taken and submitted to a crime lab, where it was matched with the original newborn DNA taken the day Kamiyah was born. The test confirmed the teen was, in fact, Kamiyah.

Shanara Mobley, who was just 16 when her daughter Kamiyah was snatched from the Florida hospital where she gave birth 

Williams, now 51, is thought to have suffered a miscarriage about a week before she drove the three hours from South Carolina to Florida and abducted baby Kamiyah in 1998.

It is believed she then passed off Kamiyah as her own daughter to family and friends, who said they never suspected a thing.

Among them was Charles Manigo, who said he only found out he was not Kamiyah's biological father last week when his former partner Williams was arrested.

Kamiyah was reunited with her biological parents just days after learning the shocking secret of how she was snatched at birth by the woman who raised her.

After spending nearly an hour with his daughter, Aiken, 41, said of seeing her for the very first time: 'It was the best day of my life. It was a beautiful, beautiful day. We are so happy. I hope the world is rejoicing with us.'

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