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She was kidnapped in Texas as a baby. A home DNA test reunited him with her family 51 years later

2022-11-30T02:51:40.516Z


Melissa Highsmith was 22 months old in 1971 when she was abducted by a babysitter from her family's Fort Worth apartment. The police had investigated for years, without finding her whereabouts.


By Minyvonne Burke -

NBC News

A Texas woman kidnapped 51 years ago as a baby was reunited with her family after they used a home DNA test in hopes of locating her.

Melissa Highsmith

was 22 months old when she was allegedly abducted in August 1971

by a babysitter from her family's Fort Worth apartment, according to the NBC affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Her mother, Alta Apantenco, was accused of killing the baby and concealing the crime, according to the news station.

But the family maintained that Highsmith was abducted from the home by a hired nanny through a newspaper ad.

The family spent more than five decades searching for Highsmith before a 23andMe

DNA test

helped crack the case.

Alta Apantenco, Melissa Highsmith, and Jeffrie HighsmithSharon Rose Highsmith via Facebook

“Our finding of Melissa was purely by DNA, not any involvement by the police, FBI, radio show or our own family investigations,” the family said in a Facebook post Sunday on a page titled “We found! To Melissa!!!”

“DNA WINS THIS QUEST!”

Her sister, Victoria Highsmith, told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth that the DNA matched samples from Melissa Highsmith's children.

The Highsmiths' parents then provided their own DNA samples.

Three weeks after getting tested, the family had found Melissa Highsmith.

“It was like,

'Boom, boom, boom,'

we found it,” said Victoria Highsmith.

[Missing Princeton student found dead, according to police sources]

A 23andMe

spokesperson

said the company had never heard of a case like this.

“There really are no words to describe how incredible this story is.

We are very grateful that Melissa and her family have been able to reunite after such a long time, and we wish them the best," the spokesperson stated.

Melissa Highsmith, who grew up Melanie, was reunited with her family on Saturday, weeks after her parents and siblings held a press conference on Nov. 6, her 53rd birthday.

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“I couldn't stop crying.

She was overjoyed and I'm still kind of confused trying to take in that my sister is ahead of me and that we've found her,” Victoria Highsmith said.

“It's a Christmas miracle!

It's amazing to meet her.

It has been like looking at myself: she looks like me, like us.

She is delighted to be in our lives."

Another sister, Sharon Rose Highsmith, wrote on Facebook that Melissa had been living in Fort Worth for most of her life.

Melissa told her family that she did not have a good life and she ran away from home at age 15, according to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth.

She added that she will also change her name to the one her parents gave her at birth.

The Fort Worth Police Department did not provide details about the case, but said it is "thrilled to learn how the Highsmiths' use of

23andme

led them to Melissa."

He disappeared in 2020 at the age of 15.

She now returned to her house and says that he was always with a teacher

Oct 25, 202201:37

"The Fort Worth Police Department will conduct official DNA testing to confirm Melissa's identity, and the department will provide an update once the official results are in," a spokesperson said in an emailed statement Tuesday. .

It will be impossible to make arrests for the kidnapping because the criminal statute of limitations expired at age 20, after her 18th birthday, police added, noting that investigators are still working to gather information about the crime.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2022-11-30

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