In November 2022, one of the longest stories of reuniting separated parents and children came to an end. It took more than half a century for inconsolable parents to find their kidnapped daughter and for the mother to be cleared of all suspicion of a terrible crime.
And the kidnapper is likely to escape punishment…We are in the United States, in the state of Texas. November 6, 1969 in the family of Jeffrey Highsmith and Alta Apantenko was born daughter, whom the couple called Melissa. However, family happiness was soon overshadowed by the departure of her husband from the family. The mother raised the child alone, while she had to work.
Leaving for long shifts, Alta Apantenko called on the ads for babysitters to come. In the U.S. this is a fairly popular service, with many female students moonlighting, spending time with other people’s children.
On August 23, 1971, Alta called, as usual, from an ad in the newspaper. A girl answered, calling herself, as she would later turn out to be an assumed name, Ruth Johnson. It was arranged that the mother would leave the child with a neighbor before she left for work, and that she would give Melissa to the nanny (who would arrive at a certain time) and escort them both to Alta’s apartment.
That’s what happened. But when the mother returned home from work, there was no nanny or daughter in the house. Melissa was 1 year and 9 months old at the time of her disappearance.Alta went to the police and became… the main suspect. The fact is that the girl, who disguised as a nanny came for Melissa, could not be identified, although her description was announced on the entire state. No other clues were found.
Soon the police began to suspect that the single mother decided to get rid of the child who was interfering with her life, and for this purpose brought her unidentified accomplice. Her acquaintances and neighbors turned against the unhappy woman. The only person who supported her was her ex-husband.
A year later, Jeffrey and Alta were reunited. Three more children were born to the family. All these years the parents didn’t give up and kept looking for their daughter. They wrote to newspapers, appeared on TV talk shows. When the Internet came along, the children of the Highsmith family created pages and communities on social media in memory of the sister they had never seen.
But it was all in vain until advances in science came to the rescue. In 2021, Jeffrey Highsmith’s father was offered a DNA test for one of the public gene banks. There was a faint hope that Melissa’s data would end up there, too.
After processing the test results, the man was dismayed – his DNA had significant similarities to the DNA of three other people. They turned out to be siblings. There is no doubt that these three are close relatives of Jeffrey, either his children or grandchildren.
The girl in the trio was not in any way age-appropriate for the role of Melissa. But they did have a mother, though denied parental rights.
Communication with a woman named Melanie Walden, who lived in South Carolina, 1.5 thousand miles from Texas, began with a correspondence. Jeffrey Highsmith and Alta Apantenko told an unfamiliar adult woman a story from half a century ago.At first Melanie didn’t believe a word of it. She had a birth mother, a nurse by profession, who raised her alone. Still, the stranger from South Carolina agreed to take a DNA test. The result showed an almost complete match with Melissa Highsmith’s parents’ DNA.
The reunion of separated parents and daughter took place on November 24, 2022, an important American family Thanksgiving holiday. Naturally, surrounded by numerous journalists.
Melanie/Melissa were greeted by Jeffrey’s father, mother Alta, and siblings who have lived to this happy moment. A third sister lives in Spain and promised to come later.
How the future life of the Highsmith family will turn out is still hard to say. Melanie Walden has said she will change her name to Melissa Highsmith. She is disabled, after her husband’s death her three children were taken from her, as she could not raise them for health reasons. What specific medical condition the woman has is not yet known.The most interesting thing is the fate of the kidnapper, who is still alive. The still legal (according to documents) mother of Melanie Walden, whose name is not being advertised, is the nanny named “Ruth Johnson”, who kidnapped the child 51 years ago and escaped.
But it is impossible to prosecute her, because the statute of limitations on such crimes in Texas is only 20 years. Her motives are unknown.
Only the kidnapper can tell her side of the story, and given the excitement today in the U.S. about family reunification, there are probably already talks with the elderly woman for an interview or to write a book. For a good fee.And the important question is how Melanie, who has decided to become Melissa again, will feel about the person she considered her own mother for 50+ years. And who robbed her of her real parents…