A woman charged with stealing a newborn baby from its
sleeping mother 17 years ago was granted bail by a South African court Friday
in a case of wrenching emotional complexity and coincidence.
The kidnapped baby is now a few weeks away from her 18th
birthday and in her final year of high school after reportedly being raised
with love and kindness by the 50-year-old accused woman and her husband, who
she believed were her real parents.
The biological parents of the baby they named Zephany - and
whose birthday they marked every year of her absence - have told reporters
their joy at finding her overwhelms desire for revenge.
Zephany, who had been renamed by her new family and cannot
be publicly identified, is now living with a social worker until a decision can
be made on her future.
The woman whom she believed to be her mother was freed on
R5,000 (less than $500) bail on condition that she does not contact potential
state witnesses - who include her husband and Zephany.
She faces a minimum of five years in jail if convicted of
kidnapping, but prosecutors indicated that they could be open to a plea bargain
after consultations with both sides.
Zephany's biological parents have said there would be no
pressure on the girl to live with them.
"I want what she wants - whatever she thinks is best
for her will be fine by us," Celeste Nurse has said.
The 50-year-old suspect, who cannot be named because that
would identify the girl, had reportedly had a series of miscarriages before
allegedly stealing Zephany from her mother at Groote Schuur hospital in Cape Town
three days after her birth in April 1997.
She was arrested last week after an astonishing coincidence
saw the stolen girl attending the same school as one of her biological sisters.
Pupils noticed a remarkable likeness between the 17-year-old
final year student and her younger sister, Cassidy, who started at the school
this year.
When Cassidy told her parents about the girl and they saw
the likeness for themselves, they called the police.
DNA tests confirmed that she was Zephany.
Without knowing it, the Nurse family had been living within
a couple of kilometres of their kidnapped daughter.
"All the time she has been right under my nose,"
the father said.
"It was seriously heartbreaking".
"Emotions are running very high in my family, it's
actually good emotions," he said.
Winter storm moves away, eastern US to remain cold
WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) - A winter storm that dropped roughly two feet of
snow (61 cm) on parts of the eastern United States is expected to move out to
sea on Friday but the cold will remain.
The National Weather Service warned of flooding and told
commuters from the lower Mississippi valley to the mid-Atlantic to be wary of
dangerous road conditions created by the snow, ice and slush.
While forecasters predicted only pockets of scattered snow
at most in the east, they said temperatures were expected to be 10 to 30
degrees below average across the region. "Arctic air settling in behind
the boundary will make for a chilly end to the work week," the National
Weather Service said.
In Kentucky, where cities were buried under as many as 23
inches (58 cm) of snow, Governor Steve Beshear declared a state of emergency on
Thursday as traffic halted on interstate highways and motorists were left
stranded.
A Delta Air Lines plane arriving in heavy snow at New York's
LaGuardia Airport from Atlanta on Thursday slid off the runway and came to rest
just feet from the frigid waters of Flushing Bay. No serious injuries were
reported.
Just shy of 600 US flights had been cancelled as of early
Friday morning, according to FlightAware.com, as compared to the 4,957
cancellations tallied on Thursday.
Parts of Massachusetts got up to 12 inches (19 cm) of snow,
but Boston only received trace amounts, leaving intact its annual snowfall
record at nearly 108 inches (274 cm), NWS meteorologist Bob Oravec said. Two
inches (5 cm) would break the city's record, which was set in 1995-96.
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