The Highsmith family had a lot to be thankful for this past Thanksgiving. The family from Fort Worth, Texas, was reunited with their daughter who was kidnapped more than 50 years ago when she was a baby. She was found thanks to a DNA match on the genealogy platform 23andMe.
It was a Thanksgiving holiday to be remembered after a family in Fort Worth, Texas, reunited with their daughter who was kidnapped when she was just a baby over 50 years ago, thanks to a DNA match from 23andMe.
Melissa Highsmith is now 51 years old, and was kidnapped when she was 22 months old by a woman that her mother hired to babysit her. Melissa, known as Melanie after she was kidnapped, has lived-in Fort Worth most of her life but never knew she was abducted.
She also had no idea her family was searching for her all those years, but she got a message on Facebook from her biological father that he and her family were looking for her for five decades. It was a shock and at first she thought it was a scam.
When she received the message from her father, Jeffrie Highsmith, Melissa said she confronted the woman who raised her and asked her if there was any truth to the Facebook message. The woman admitted that she was indeed baby Melissa who had disappeared in 1971.
In 1971, Melissa’s mother, Alta Apantenco, advertised in a local newspaper for a babysitter. She got a response from a woman who was interested in the job. Apantenco was a working mom and needed help to care for her baby daughter.
When the babysitter arrived to pick up Melissa, Apentenco’s roommate handed the baby to the babysitter, and they never saw Melissa again.
The family reported Melissa missing to the police, and they searched for her for over fifty years. In memory of their lost child, they would have a birthday party every November. The family opened a Facebook page dedicated to finding baby Melissa, hoping to get clues on social media.
In September, they received an anonymous tip that their daughter was living in Charleston. They used the DNA test results from 23andMe, her birthday, and a distinct birthmark on Melissa to confirm that she was their long-lost daughter.
The emotional reunion occurred on Saturday at a church in Fort Worth. Melissa finally met both her parents and two of her four siblings.
One of her siblings, Victoria Garner, said she was overjoyed to finally meet her missing sister and was still in disbelief that they had found Melissa.
Melissa’s sister, Sharon Highsmith, said the family had hired a clinical laboratory scientist and genealogist, who helped them interpret the DNA results and mine data from public resources to find Melissa.
Details about the babysitter are unclear, but she cannot be criminally prosecuted as the criminal statute of limitations expired twenty years after Melissa turned 18.
The Fort Worth Police Department was happy that the family had reunited. It said that despite the expiration of the statute of limitations, it would continue to look into the case.