After 51 years a woman, kidnapped from her babysitter in Texas when she was just one, has found her family again. The Incredible Story of Melissa Highsmith ended with a happy ending last weekend in South Carolina, but it started in Fort Worth in 1971. The mother, Alta Apantenco, single, had placed an ad in the newspaper looking for a babysitter who could look after her when she was at home. work.
A woman had responded to the ad, but Alta was not at home when she showed up for the appointment. It was her roommate who handed the child over to the stranger who from that moment on disappeared with the child.
The family reported the disappearance of the child and in all these years has never stopped looking for her. Alta, meanwhile, remarried and had more children. Just one of these has opened a page on Facebook to look for her sister never known.
Last September, an anonymous message revealed that Melissa, now a woman, was in Charleston, more than 2,000 kilometers from the place where she was kidnapped. Thanks to a DNA test and other tests, the family concluded that it was indeed her.
Last Saturday, Melissa was reunited with her mother, father and two of her four siblings. “I couldn’t stop crying,” her sister Victoria said in an interview with the Guardian.
“Our family suffered because this case was mishandled,” said another sister, Sharon Highsmith. “Right now, we just want to get to know Melissa, welcome her to the family, and make up for 50 years of lost time.” She Sharon said she was very happy especially for her mother who had never given herself peace and she had also had to face suspicions and veiled accusations in the past of being responsible for the disappearance of the child.
“My mother did her best with the limited resources she had. She couldn’t risk being fired, so she trusted the person who said she would take care of her daughter,” added the woman who also wanted to leave. a message for those who live experiences similar to his: “Never give up. Follow every lead.”
