Found Alive TX - Melissa Highsmith, 21 mos, Fort Worth, 23 Aug 1971 *found alive in 2022*
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MajorHoople
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More info and photos at the link
www.dailymail.co.uk
5 December 2022
"The Texas woman that was abducted 51 years ago by the babysitter shared her horrific childhood and the sexual abuse she endured by her stepfather before she became a teen runaway living on the streets to survive, DailyMail.com can now reveal.
Melissa Highsmith now 53 was miraculously reunited with her biological parents - Jeffrie Higshmith, 72; Alta Alpantenco, 73 and siblings - Rebecca Del Bosque, 48; Vicitoria Highsmith, 47; Sharon Highsmith, 45 and Jeffrey Highsmith, 42 - on November 26- five decades after she was abducted in 1971 when she was only 22 months old.
Melissa said she has no doubt in her mind that the person she called 'mama' was the same person who abducted her."
"Rebecca told DailyMail.com how she joined websleuth and was always trying to find Melissa and between 2005 and 2007 thought she came close but was heartbroken when she learned after a DNA test that the person she thought maybe her sister wasn't, after all."
Woman abducted 51 years ago reveals horrid childhood
The Texas woman that was abducted 51 years ago by the babysitter shared her horrific childhood and the sexual abuse she endured by her stepfather before she became a teen runaway
5 December 2022
"The Texas woman that was abducted 51 years ago by the babysitter shared her horrific childhood and the sexual abuse she endured by her stepfather before she became a teen runaway living on the streets to survive, DailyMail.com can now reveal.
Melissa Highsmith now 53 was miraculously reunited with her biological parents - Jeffrie Higshmith, 72; Alta Alpantenco, 73 and siblings - Rebecca Del Bosque, 48; Vicitoria Highsmith, 47; Sharon Highsmith, 45 and Jeffrey Highsmith, 42 - on November 26- five decades after she was abducted in 1971 when she was only 22 months old.
Melissa said she has no doubt in her mind that the person she called 'mama' was the same person who abducted her."
"Rebecca told DailyMail.com how she joined websleuth and was always trying to find Melissa and between 2005 and 2007 thought she came close but was heartbroken when she learned after a DNA test that the person she thought maybe her sister wasn't, after all."
ralyla
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The Fort Worth Police Department has completed official DNA testing, confirming the identity of a woman who was kidnapped as a child 51 years ago and was found by her family in late 2022, police announced in an update Thursday.
Read more at: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article275077111.html#storylink=cpy
Read more at: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article275077111.html#storylink=cpy
imstilla.grandma
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The Fort Worth Police Department has completed official DNA testing, confirming the identity of a woman who was kidnapped as a child 51 years ago and was found by her family in late 2022, police announced in an update Thursday.
“It is our hope that this test result will offer additional closure for the Highsmith family,” police said in a news release.
Melissa Highsmith was 22 months old when she was kidnapped by a babysitter in 1971. She lived in Fort Worth for most of her life and did not know she was missing or that her biological family was looking for her.
Her family hired an amateur genealogist and had a DNA test done through 23andMe — a website customers can use to find relatives and create a family tree — that led them to a Fort Worth woman who went by Melanie Brown.
Highsmith’s family took to Facebook in November 2022 to announce they located their missing daughter on a page called “WE FOUND MELISSA!!!”
The 23andMe database found a match to three grandchildren of Melissa’s father, Jeffrie Highsmith, who are the children of Melanie Brown and her husband, John Brown. A DNA test of Melanie Brown — who also went by Melanie Walden — was done to confirm she is Melissa Highsmith, Jeffrie wrote on the Facebook page.
“It is our hope that this test result will offer additional closure for the Highsmith family,” police said in a news release.
Melissa Highsmith was 22 months old when she was kidnapped by a babysitter in 1971. She lived in Fort Worth for most of her life and did not know she was missing or that her biological family was looking for her.
Her family hired an amateur genealogist and had a DNA test done through 23andMe — a website customers can use to find relatives and create a family tree — that led them to a Fort Worth woman who went by Melanie Brown.
Highsmith’s family took to Facebook in November 2022 to announce they located their missing daughter on a page called “WE FOUND MELISSA!!!”
The 23andMe database found a match to three grandchildren of Melissa’s father, Jeffrie Highsmith, who are the children of Melanie Brown and her husband, John Brown. A DNA test of Melanie Brown — who also went by Melanie Walden — was done to confirm she is Melissa Highsmith, Jeffrie wrote on the Facebook page.
MajorHoople
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Article and lots of photos:
www.dailymail.co.uk
"A DNA test has confirmed the identity of a Texan woman who was reunited with her family last year after being abducted as a toddler 51 years ago.
Melissa Highsmith, now 53, was taken from her parents' Fort Worth home in 1971 by a babysitter when she was just 22 months old
She was miraculously reunited with her biological parents - Jeffrie Higshmith, 72; Alta Alpantenco, 73 and siblings - Rebecca Del Bosque, 48; Vicitoria Highsmith, 47; Sharon Highsmith, 45 and Jeffrey Highsmith, 42 - on November 26.
Fort Worth Police Department announced on Thursday it had completed official DNA testing which confirmed Melissa's identity as the missing child.
For more than half a century her parents and siblings had been looking around the country for her - but she had been living just ten minutes away.
They eventually found her through her children's DNA samples which were shared on genealogy website 23andMe."
DNA test CONFIRMS Texas woman, 53, is baby abducted 51 years ago
A DNA test has confirmed the identity of Texan woman Melissa Highsmith, now 53, who was reunited with her family last year after being abducted as a toddler 51 years ago.
"A DNA test has confirmed the identity of a Texan woman who was reunited with her family last year after being abducted as a toddler 51 years ago.
Melissa Highsmith, now 53, was taken from her parents' Fort Worth home in 1971 by a babysitter when she was just 22 months old
She was miraculously reunited with her biological parents - Jeffrie Higshmith, 72; Alta Alpantenco, 73 and siblings - Rebecca Del Bosque, 48; Vicitoria Highsmith, 47; Sharon Highsmith, 45 and Jeffrey Highsmith, 42 - on November 26.
Fort Worth Police Department announced on Thursday it had completed official DNA testing which confirmed Melissa's identity as the missing child.
For more than half a century her parents and siblings had been looking around the country for her - but she had been living just ten minutes away.
They eventually found her through her children's DNA samples which were shared on genealogy website 23andMe."
The fact that she ran away really stood out for me. If she had died on the streets and was registered as a Jane Doe, nobody would have suggested that she was Melissa Highsmith. This is why I keep an open mind.More info and photos at the link
Woman abducted 51 years ago reveals horrid childhood
The Texas woman that was abducted 51 years ago by the babysitter shared her horrific childhood and the sexual abuse she endured by her stepfather before she became a teen runaway
5 December 2022
"The Texas woman that was abducted 51 years ago by the babysitter shared her horrific childhood and the sexual abuse she endured by her stepfather before she became a teen runaway living on the streets to survive, DailyMail.com can now reveal.
Melissa Highsmith now 53 was miraculously reunited with her biological parents - Jeffrie Higshmith, 72; Alta Alpantenco, 73 and siblings - Rebecca Del Bosque, 48; Vicitoria Highsmith, 47; Sharon Highsmith, 45 and Jeffrey Highsmith, 42 - on November 26- five decades after she was abducted in 1971 when she was only 22 months old.
Melissa said she has no doubt in her mind that the person she called 'mama' was the same person who abducted her."
"Rebecca told DailyMail.com how she joined websleuth and was always trying to find Melissa and between 2005 and 2007 thought she came close but was heartbroken when she learned after a DNA test that the person she thought maybe her sister wasn't, after all."