The Kidnapping of Kamiyah Mobley

Infant Kamiyah Mobley, who was kidnapped shortly after birth

Kamiyah Mobley was only a few hours old when she was kidnapped from a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida on July 10th, 1998. After Kamiyah’s birth mother Shanara Mobley (pictured below) gave birth to her, a woman named Gloria Williams entered the hospital dressed as a nurse. Gloria then approached Shanara and told her that Kamiyah had a fever and needed to be taken into a separate room because she was contagious. Thinking Gloria was an actual nurse at that hospital, Shanara handed her newborn baby off to her. Gloria then walked out of the hospital while holding Kamiyah and never returned.

Shanara Mobley

Gloria raised Kamiyah as her own child and gave her a new name: Alexis Manigo. Alexis and Gloria had a great relationship, and Alexis was completely unaware that she was kidnapped at birth.However, that finally changed when Alexis turned 16 and applied for her first job at a restaurant. 

Alexis and Gloria 

Alexis' potential employer told her that she needed to bring a copy of her social security card and birth certificate to work. When Alexis told Gloria that she needed these items, Gloria broke down and told her that she did not have them. Gloria then explained that she was not Alexis’ birth mother, and that she had actually kidnapped Alexis from the hospital the day she was born. Gloria had apparently miscarried her own child just days before the kidnapping, however nobody in Gloria’s family knew this–they all thought that she had actually given birth to Alexis.

After learning this, Alexis did some online research and learned that her birth name is Kamiyah Mobley. She also allegedly found her birth mother’s phone number at some point and called it, but then immediately hung up. A few months later, on her birthday, Alexis received a “happy birthday” text from that same phone number. Shanara apparently had a hunch that the mysterious caller from months prior was her missing daughter. 

Alexis knew about her true identity for about two years before before it came to light in the public eye. Finally, in late 2016, Jacksonville police received a tip about the Kamiyah Mobley case that brought them to Waterboro, South Carolina, where Gloria and Alexis lived. A DNA sample proved that Alexis is, in fact, the biological daughter of Shanara Mobley. Gloria Williams was arrested and charged with kidnapping and interfering with custody. Despite this, Alexis still supported Gloria. She told Good Morning America in 2018: “I understand what she did was wrong, but just don’t lock her up and throw away the key. I still think of her as Mom. She will always be Mom."At this point, though, Alexis had also reunited with Shanara and maintained a solid relationship with her.

Shanara and Alexis (born Kamiyah) reunited

On June 8th, 2018, Gloria Williams was sentenced to 18 years for kidnapping Kamiyah Mobley back in 1998. While in court, Gloria testified that in 1998 she was in an abusive relationship with a man named Charles Manigo–the man that Kamiyah grew up believing was her father. About a month before Kamiyah’s birth/kidnapping, Gloria had lost custody of her two other children and had suffered a miscarriage as a result of Charles’ abuse. After that, Gloria decided to drive from her home in South Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida; where she would later kidnap Kamiyah just hours after she was born. However, Gloria testified that when she went to Jacksonville, she had no plans to kidnap a child. When asked why she did it, she replied: “I felt like I was on autopilot. My life was out of control, I lost everything.”

Alexis still publicly supported Gloria, which upset Shanara very much. Her relationship with Alexis has since soured.