How a Facebook picture helped Mpumalanga police solve a 20-year-old abduction cold case

A curious Ermelo teenager who came across a picture on Facebook of a woman who looked just like her mother has helped Mpumalanga police solve what was a 20-year abduction cold case involving an older sister she didn't know she had.

Police spokesperson Brig Selvy Mohlala told TimesLIVE on Monday that before coming across the picture, the teenage girl had no idea how, years before she was born, her mother had suffered a tragic loss. On March 16, 2001, her mom's baby was stolen  hours after the birth.

Mohlala described the case as one that was “cracked by coincidence”. 

“It was this teenage girl’s curiosity that led to police solving the case,” said Mohlala.

“She was on Facebook and on the ‘people you may know’ option. She saw a woman who looked a lot like her mother. She showed the picture to her grandmother and said, ‘Does this girl not look like mom?’ The grandmother sent her to her mother to show her the picture and, for the first time, the mother revealed to her that she had lost a child 20 years ago,” said Mohlala.

Armed with the picture they had taken off Facebook, the mother headed to the police station where she had opened the case 20 years ago and police quickly traced the woman from Facebook. 

She was taken for DNA testing and the results which came out days later and proved that this was the child who was snatched from her hours after she had given birth at the Ermelo Provincial Hospital on March 23 2001. 

Mohlala explained that the now 36-year-old woman was just 16 when her baby was stolen. Her baby was less than a day old.

“As they were on their way home to Breyten in the company of the baby's aunt, they met a woman who offered to assist by holding the baby as her mom was experiencing pain and dizziness while the aunt visited a shop nearby,” said Mohlala.

“After a little while, the woman took the baby, promised to return and went in the direction of the aunt. The aunt returned but the woman never did.”

The baby was never seen again.

Until the breakthrough that happened on November 29, police had had no strong leads on the disappearance of the child.

Meanwhile, a 50-year-old, who is believed to have stolen the newborn 20 years ago and raised her as her own has been arrested. She was charged with child abduction.

Mohlala said the suspect appeared in the Ermelo magistrate’s court on November 30. She was released on R1,000 bail while her case was postponed to January 2022.

Meanwhile, the overwhelmed 20-year-old woman who only recently learnt of her abduction  is at a place of safety as she undergoes psychological support.

She will be reunited with her biological family soon.

The abduction was similar to many cases that have been reported over the years, so Mpumalanga police commissioner, Lt-Gen Semakaleng Manamela, uses the story as a cautionary tale to remind people to never trust their babies with strangers — no matter how genuine their intentions may seem.