Remember the Carlina White Story...She Was Kidnapped 23 Years Ago and Reunited With Birth Parents

It’s been an emotional roller coaster to say the least for Carlina White and her biological family since their reunion last month following her kidnapping 23 years ago.

And the drama continues: Carlina’s birth mother Joy White says she’s become unresponsive and reports say Carlina won’t talk to the media without money.  IIt’s been pretty tough,” said White. “I wanted to have a relationship with my daughter.” She now feels like she has lost her daughter twice, and Carlina has, according to her birth mother, grown distant and mercenary. Carlina White would not comment to Today and will only speak for money, it was reported.

Once the discovery of Carlina’s true background was made – she had contacted the hotline of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children – Carlina, who was going by the name Nejdra Nance, came to the Bronx to meet her birth parents. After a four-day reunion, Carlina returned to Atlanta, where she lives, then came back to the Bronx a day later to be photographed and tell her story to the New York Post, Today’s Meredith Vieira reported.

“I was on such a high when I was reunited with my daughter,” said Joy White “I was floating on air. Everything seemed so great.”  But on the second visit it could be detected that Carlina acted distant, according to Joy, who also admitted there may have been a loyalty conflict brought on by pressure from the other family of Carlina – who has gone back to using the name Nejdra Nance.

“It really hurts,” said Joy White, who described herself as “heartbroken, but I do understand that is her family. She was brought up by them. She’s with that family. That’s all she knows. [But] I’m her mother. It hurts not to have my daughter. I want her back.”

There are also questions about a $750,000 settlement Joy White and her husband received from the hospital after the kidnapping. White said a major portion of that money was put into trust for Carlina until the time she turned 21. As she is now 23, the money is “gone,” said White, also speaking for her husband, Carl Tyson. “We both had to live.” They also have two other children.

“I’m disappointed, because this was a miracle that happened. It’s mind-blowing,” said White. “It hurts me that it’s about money.” 

But Carlina’s birth father is telling a different story.

Presenting a conflicting view on CBS’s The Early Show on Tuesday, Tyson said, “I speak to my daughter every morning and text her.” He made no mention of any problems, except for the distance between him and Atlanta. “I just wish she were close to me,” he said.

And just for good measure, the FBI is throwing some more BS into the mix.

NBC News reported that FBI and law authorities were tipped off six years ago about Carlina’s situation but failed to follow through. In addition, alleged kidnapper Ann Pettway is facing a delay of at least two more weeks in a grand jury’s decision in her case.

We smell another lawsuit.

Do you think Carlina’s trying to cash in on her tragic story? Or is Joy White throwing her daughter under the bus for attention?