Melissa Highsmith, who was taken away as a baby, has been moved about 1,000 miles away to South Carolina. The US woman was taken away from her family when she was a baby 51 years ago, but she has now been reunited with her family. Even though they don’t know who she is yet, her family is very happy after so many years.
About Melissa Highsmith Kidnapping
Melissa Highsmith was taken from her home in Fort Worth, Texas when she was just 21 months old. She is now 53 years old. Her family was always looking for their beloved daughter, but they couldn’t find her until they found their “lost angel” not long ago. We can’t ignore the role that the at-home DNA test kit played in the Melissa Highsmith case. When family members found out that their DNA matched that of Melissa’s children, they were shocked.
A close friend said that Melissa Highsmith saw her parents for the first time on Saturday. This is the first time in her life that she has seen her parents.
Jeff Highsmith’s brother would keep a vigil on the birthdays of his sister, who was taken from them a long time ago, to remember her. In fact, the whole family met up in Fort Worth, which is where she was taken. After they sang “Happy Birthday,” they let go of the white balloons to show how much they cared.
On the same day, they heard that there was a chance their missing child was still alive somewhere and could be found.
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After hearing about her, they got a picture of her, and when her family saw it, they were shocked and said, “Oh my God,” as her sister Sharon Smith put it. Rebecca Del Bosque, another sister, added, “It felt like I was looking at myself.”
Melissa Highsmith, who is 53, met her family for the first time last Saturday. On Sunday, her family made an announcement about how an amateur genealogist and her marriage certificate helped them find her.
Melissa has been living as “Melanie,” but she is still waiting for the lab results to find out who she really is. On Monday, the police were happy to hear that the family had found their missing child after a long search. They also said that the public would get an update once the DNA test results came back from the lab.
Even before science proves it, the Highsmith’s are sure that they have finally landed before their own daughter. Aside from the 23 and Me DNA kit that matched Jeffrey Highsmith’s DNA with one of Melissa’s children, there are other things that have always made it feel like the path is right: Melissa named her dog Charlie, just like one of her supposed sisters did. She also likes to put jalapenos on her nachos, just like her siblings do. A birthmark on Melissa’s back made their guess even stronger.
Who kidnapped Melissa Highsmith?
There are still a lot of unanswered questions about Melissa’s disappearance, like who took her, why they kept her safe, and if hurting her wasn’t on their list, why did they take her? The girl’s family has no idea that the woman who raised her is the one who took her in the first place.
They couldn’t decide what to do because they didn’t know if her guardian saved her or taken their beloved daughter away from them. Police in Fort Worth has been working well with the family. They are said to have told them that even though the time limit for the charges has long passed, they will still look into it.
Alta Apantenco put an ad in the newspaper in August 1971 to find a babysitter for her daughter Melissa, who was about 2 years old at the time. The woman contacted Apatenco right away, and the two of them agreed to meet at the restaurant where she worked as a waitress. But the woman never showed up.
A different babysitter called later. She said that she had a backyard and that she used to watch other kids there. So, she asked Apatenco if she could look after Melissa from where she was. The woman seemed very eager to hear from Apatenco because she needed to have children in order to keep her job. Aoatenco finally agreed.
Melissa Highsmith was dropped off by Apatenco’s roommate, and the woman picked her up when Apatenco left for work early. But, based on what her roommate said, the mysterious woman in white gloves never gave the boy back.
After that, the family started looking for their daughter. They put ads in newspapers, joined discussion forums, and rushed to states where they thought they had a lead.
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In September, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children told the family that they had gotten a tip about a woman who looked like Melissa Highsmith when she was older and that she was in South Carolina. But that didn’t work.
Jeffrey Highsmith’s 23 and Me had a good outcome earlier in November when he found a match with his granddaughter he never thought he had. Del Bosque looked into it more and found that the match had two other siblings, who might be her nephews.
The sisters took the results right away to an amateur genealogist named Lisa Jo Schiele. She confirmed that the kids were the children of one of her sisters. Schiele found their father and got the names of their real parents, which helped him find a marriage record. There, they found Melissa’s Facebook page and sent her a text message right away.
Melissa Highsmith at first said she wasn’t related to the Highsmith’s, but when they brought up her birthmark, she agreed to get a DNA test.
So, Jeffrie Highsmith and Apatenco finally got to see their daughter for the first time in 51 years on Saturday. It was a very emotional reunion. At the moment, they are waiting for the test results to find out if Melanie is really Melissa.