What Happened to Kamiyah Mobley, Who Was Kidnapped As A Child?

For most of her young life, Kamiyah Mobley believed she was the daughter of a woman named Gloria Williams and that her name was Alexis Kelly Manigo. But her seemingly perfect life unraveled after she learned she was kidnapped mere hours after she was born — and by the woman who claimed to be her mother. 

Mobley's harrowing story is documented in the Lifetime TV movie "Robin Roberts Presents - Stolen By My Mother: The Kamiyah Mobley Story" which first aired this week.

Mobley was born on July 10, 1998 in Florida. Shortly after her birth a woman wearing blue scrubs and surgical gloves came into the hospital and carried the infant away from Shanara Mobley, then just 16. Police later learned it was Williams impersonating a hospital employee, according to ABC News.

Williams had miscarried just a few weeks prior, so the Williams' family believed Mobley was Williams' daughter when she brought her to her home in South Carolina.

The lie began to unravel by the time Mobley turned 16 and learned she had no social security number. Sometime later, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received tips about Williams and Mobley, which were passed on to Florida authorities. Williams was arrested in 2017. 

She was convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to 18 years in prison in mid-2018, according to ABC News.

Her appeal for her 18-year sentence was denied last year, according to First Coast News. 

Mobley declined to testify for Williams' appeal but has said in multiple previous interviews that she still loves Williams.

"She was very open to all my friends I brought through that door," Mobley said of Williams in an ABC interview. "She was one of those mothers, she was like open to sleepovers, open to company. Always smiling, always upbeat, up-tempo about everything. Very hard working, very hard working. She was actually getting her master's [degree] before she was incarcerated."

At the time of her ABC interview in June 2018, Mobley said she was working on going to college following her graduation from high school in 2016.

"Who wants to sit around and be sad all day?" Mobley said at the time. "I mean, it doesn't help anything. It's not going to change anything. I learned that a long time ago."

Mobley, now 21, sat down with renowned journalist Robin Roberts as part of a documentary interview which followed the premiere of "Stolen By My Mother." 

During the documentary, Mobley told Roberts she wants people to know she is "family-oriented" and that she hopes to move to Jacksonville in the near future — pushing to move past being kidnapped at birth and hoping to press on.

"I think I'm all right. ... All we can do is make the best of it," she told Roberts in the interview.

"Your story does give a lot of people hope," Roberts told her.

Mobley also recounted her reunion with Gloria Williams in prison — the first time they saw each other in three years — as cameras were not allowed during their meeting.

"The reality hits home when you walk out the gate ... you can't take her home with you," Mobley told the camera crew documenting her reaction.