Woman who 'stole baby' due in court

(AP)

A woman who raised a child stolen 23 years ago from a hospital in New York is in custody and due to face kidnapping charges.

Ann Pettway turned herself in days after a widely publicised reunion between the child she raised – who as an adult solved her own kidnapping – and her biological mother.

Ms Pettway surrendered on Sunday to the FBI and police in Connecticut on a warrant from North Carolina. She should not have left the state under the terms of her probation after a conviction for attempted embezzlement.

Carlina White was 19 days old when her parents took her to Harlem Hospital with a fever. Joy White and Carl Tyson said a woman who looked like a nurse comforted them. The couple left the hospital to rest, but their baby was missing when they went back. No suspects were identified.

Carlina has been living under the name Nejdra Nance. She had long suspected that Ms Pettway wasn't her biological mother because she could never provide her with a birth certificate and because she didn't look like anyone else in Ms Pettway's family.

She periodically checked the website of the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children and while looking through New York photos this month found one that looked nearly identical to her own baby picture. She contacted Joy White through the centre, and was reunited with her in New York.