Zephany Nurse

Kidnapping

Celeste Nurse delivered Zephany on 27 April 1997 by caesarean section in the Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa. Celeste described a person in a nurse's uniform comforting her while her baby was still in the nearby cot, before falling asleep. When Celeste had woken up, a nurse kept asking her where the baby was, at this point she realized that Zephany had been taken. The hospital contacted the police for assistance in searching the hospital, however only a few untraceable items were found, including Zephany's baby nest, a baby garment, and a handbag with no identifiable items. A pillow was found in a tunnel that was intended to provide women in labour direct access to the ward from the street. The tunnel also provided access to the old main building, psychiatric department and out-patient section, which at the time access was unrestricted.

The Nurse family believe the kidnapper took precautions to move through the ward unnoticed. The pillow was probably used to fake a pregnancy, as no one questions a pregnant woman moving around in a maternity ward. The woman now dressed as a nurse in maroon pants and oatmeal top, made an effort to befriend the mothers in the ward. One of the expectant mothers, who remembered the kidnapper's face, had spoken to her briefly. On another occasion, this same mother found this same woman holding her baby, and when questioned the woman replied that the baby had been crying and she was comforting it. In a later interview Celeste Nurse said: "Her intention was to steal a child, She didn't care which child it was." Five days after Zephany's birth, the Nurse family went home without their daughter.

Search

Celeste Nurse clung to the hope that what happened was not real, or a kind of sick joke and that someone would bring her daughter. "We came home to nothing." Every year since the kidnapping, the Nurse family would celebrate Zephany's birthday on the 28 April, in an attempt to keep the search for her in the media. Celeste has also given a number of interviews, many of the times when other kidnappings have occurred, always offering support to the affected families.

In at least two instances the Nurse family were given hope that their daughter would be returned home. One woman, whose neighbors had not noticed her pregnancy, was investigated by the police, however while the child closely resembled the missing Zephany, it was a boy. In another instance, after almost 12 years of no news, in July 2009 the Nurses received a phone call in which a woman whispered, "I know about your daughter," and asked for 500,000 South African Rand (approx US $70,000) to be delivered at a prearranged place. Police were contacted, and the drop off monitored, however no one arrived to collect the money. The call was later traced to Glenda Doubell, a neighbor of Celeste Nurse's mother, who was charged with extortion and was given 3 years house arrest, ZAR 5,000 fine and 600 hours community service.

Finding Zephany

The Nurses second daughter, Cassidy Nurse, started at a new school where Zephany, now aged seventeen, coincidentally had happened to also be in attendance under a different name. Friends of Zephany commented on the uncanny resemblance between the two girls, and despite their 4-year age difference, they formed an almost immediate friendship. Once Morne Nurse heard about the physical similarities between the two girls, he arranged with Cassidy to meet Zephany at a local takeaway. After this first meeting, Morne contacted the Investigating Officer in the disappearance of Zephany, and further tracked her on social media.

The police started investigating and, after Zephany's parents could not provide proof of her birth, DNA tests were conducted. The results of the DNA test were conclusive that Zephany was in fact the Nurses child, and she was removed to a place of safety by the Department of Social Services. The Nurse family were granted visitations, and apparently Zephany was already calling them mother and father at this time. In March 2016, a woman, who has not been named for legal reasons, was convicted of the abduction. In August 2016, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and her name is still being withheld "to protect the identity she gave to [the] baby."