Zephany Nurse took to social media recently to express her love for the woman convicted of kidnapping her.
The first public images of Zephany as a toddler surfaced on Wednesday when the teen posted an encouraging message on Facebook for her jailed kidnapper, whom she still considers as her mom.
“I love and miss you Mommy. You one of my greatest blessings God has given me,” Zephany reportedly wrote.
She posted pictures, including one of herself in the arms of her jailed kidnapper, reports the Weekend Argus.
In another picture, she was sitting on a bed, dressed in pink, with a frilly cap on her head.
Zephany was just three days old in April 1997 when she was snatched from Groote Schuur Hospital’s maternity unit.
A picture of her as a baby was splashed across the front pages of newspapers across the world, and is the only photograph that her biological parents, Morné and Celeste Nurse, had before she disappeared.
Zephany was found 17 years later, when her biological sister happened to enrol at the same high school she attended.
When Morné noticed the girls’ striking resemblance he called in the Hawks.
DNA tests established that his daughter’s friend was indeed his missing baby Zephany.
A 53-year-old Seawinds woman was arrested, who told the court Zephany was given to her by a woman called Sylvia.
The kidnapper cannot be identified in order to protect the name Zephany now uses.
The kidnapper was sentenced to an effective 10 years behind bars in August.
She was convicted of kidnapping, fraud and contravention of the Children’s Act.