A woman who was abducted more than 50 years ago has been reunited with her family after a DNA test confirmed her identity.
Melissa Highsmith, now 53, was kidnapped from her home in Fort Worth by her babysitter in 1971 when she was just 22-months-old.
After 51-years apart, Highsmith was reunited with her biological parents, Jeffrie Higshmith, 72 and Alta Alpantenco, 73, and has met her siblings Rebecca Del Bosque, 48; Victoria Highsmith, 47; Sharon Highsmith, 45 and Jeffrey Highsmith, 42 for the first time last November.
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Highsmith’s heart-broken parents spent decades looking for their missing child, who was eventually discovered after her children uploaded DNA samples to the genealogy website 23andMe.
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In a post back in November, the family shared a post on Facebook announcing the good news.
“Though missing for decades, the family never forgot about Melissa,” the statement said. “They continued to throw birthday parties for her, including the most recent one in November. That same day, the family found a match in DNA results.”
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The family went on to say that they had conducted ‘further official and legal DNA testing’ and were ‘waiting for official confirmation for the naysayers in this world’.
Fort Worth Police Department have now released a statement confirming her identity, saying: “It is our hope that this test result will offer additional closure for the Highsmith family.”
Highsmith says after meeting her biological family for the first time she broached the subject of her abduction with the woman who she believed to be her mum.
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Speaking to the Daily Mail, she said: “Before I met my new family I reached out to the mother that I thought raised me and asked her if there was something she needed to tell me.
“She told me she had purchased me on the street for $500.
“I was shocked. My head was spinning. I didn't sleep. She never told me, but she always told me that she had something to tell me that she had been wanting to tell me for a long time that is when I told her I already knew.”
Police in Fort Worth are urging anyone with information to come forward.
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“Although the criminal statute of limitations expired 20 years after Melissa’s 18th birthday, the Fort Worth Police Department Major Case Unit continues to ask for the public’s assistance with any additional information concerning Melissa’s abduction that occurred over 51 years ago,” the statement continued.
Claire Reid