PH
A South African woman has been found guilty of kidnapping a three-day-old baby in 1997.
Police accused her of fraudulently claiming to be the girl’s mother since snatching her from a hospital in Cape Town.
The 51-year-old woman was arrested last year after suspicions were raised when there was a similar-looking girl at the child’s school.
DNA tests then proved that the two girls were sisters, police said. The kidnapped girl’s biological parents, Celeste and Morne Nurse, called her Zephany, but the name she grew up with has not been revealed to protect her identity.
The convicted woman, who has been denied bail while she awaits sentencing, has also not been named for similar reasons.
Zephany had been living with the accused, near the Nurse family’s home in the Cape Flats, a mainly working class neighbourhood in Cape Town, when she was identified last year.
