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This is the extraordinary moment an 18-year-old girl who was abducted from a Florida hospital as a baby was finally reunited with her biological parents. 

Kamiyah Mobley has spent her entire life living as Alexis Manigo and had no idea her real parents were Shanara Mobley and Craig Aiken.

But days after learning the shocking secret of how she was snatched at birth and raised by another woman, Kamiyah was finally able to meet her birth parents on Saturday in South Carolina.

The trio posed for their first ever heart-melting family photo, breaking into broad smiles with Shanara looking close to tears as her long-lost daughter reached out to capture the shot.

 

Kamiyah Mobley, 18, posed for a selfie with her biological parents Shanara Mobley and Craig Aiken in an emotional family reunion on Saturday in South Carolina

After spending nearly an hour with his daughter, Aiken, 41, said of seeing her for the very first time: 'It was the best day of my life. It was a beautiful, beautiful day. We are so happy. I hope the world is rejoicing with us.'

The emotion-charged meeting took place behind closed doors at a police station in Walterboro, South Carolina, where the woman who raised Kamiyah, 51-year-old Gloria Williams, is currently in custody awaiting extradition to Florida to face kidnapping charges.

Aiken, whose wife Shannon was also present, said they chose not to discuss the alleged kidnapping, instead focusing on getting to know the daughter he and Shanara feared they would never see.

'We laughed, we chatted, we didn't allow any negative thoughts. We didn't talk about the kidnapping,' he told Dailymail.com

'It's going to be hard for her to turn this into a positive. She's got very mixed emotions about the woman who raised her.

'But we are going to be there for her, this is just the start of a wonderful future.' 

 

Kamiyah Mobley, now 18, was found living in South Carolina on Friday living under the name Alexis Manigo. Gloria Williams, 51, has been arrested for kidnapping the girl from Florida

The mystery of Kamiyah Mobley became a national sensation when she was stolen from her mother Shanara Mobley's arms at the University Medical Center in Jacksonville in July 1998. 

Authorities revealed Kamiyah had an inclination' some months ago that she may have been kidnapped before Williams was arrested on Friday.

Kamiyah burst into tears as she said goodbye to Williams as her abductor waived extradition to Jacksonville, where she will face kidnapping charges.

'I love you mom,' she told Williams as the two shared a moment, separated by a mesh screen in the Colleton County Jail in Walterboro, South Carolina.

Williams blew Kamiyah a kiss as the teenager cried out 'Momma' and told her abductor she was 'praying' for her.  

Just hours after police revealed that Kamiyah Mobley had been found, Manigo took to Facebook to defend her abductor.  

'My mother raised me with everything I needed and most of all everything I wanted,' she wrote. 'My mother is no felon.' 

It was earlier revealed Williams had suffered a miscarriage about a week before she drove the three hours from South Carolina to Florida and abducted baby Kamiyah 18 years ago, Walterboro Live reports. 

It is believed she then passed off Kamiyah as her own daughter to family and friends, who said they never suspected a thing.  

Jacksonville police said the teenager found out on Friday morning that the woman who raised her in Walterboro her whole life was not her real mother.

Within hours Manigo was able to reconnect over FaceTime with her biological parents, who both cried 'tears of joy' after a detective told them their baby had been found.

Meanwhile Williams, who also has two biological children who grew up with Kamiyah, will be extradited back to Florida as soon as possible and is being held without bond, according to Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams.  

She could face up to life in prison if convicted.

The news came as a shock to neighbors who said Williams seemed like any regular member of the community.  

Williams was employed as a social worker and attended church every Sunday, where she also led the youth program. 

She had worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs' hospital in Charleston and also volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, according to CBS News. 

'The family is a good family,' said Ruben Boatright, who has known Williams for 15 years and watched Kamiyah grow up. 

'You don't want to think bad thoughts of anyone in your family, and that she would do something like that,' he told WJXT. 

'But then it's right there staring you in the face. So you don't know what to say or do.'

Boatright said Kamiyah was a well-mannered teen who was 'very well read' and 'disciplined'. 

He said his opinion of Williams hasn't changed, despite the news. 

'She did that 18 years ago,' he said. 'Eighteen years ago she was a young lady and you don't know what her emotional state was then.' 

Boatright said the surprising news has spread like wildfire in the small community. 

'At the fish market, the hair dresser, the gas station, they’re all talking about it,' he said.

Investigators are currently speaking with Williams' family to learn more about the abduction. Authorities have not yet determined Williams' links to Jacksonville. 

 

 

 

Tears of joy flowed freely for Kamiyah's biological parents Craig Aiken (pictured left on Friday) and Shanara Mobley (pictured right in 1998 after her daughter was abducted)

 

 

 

Just hours after police revealed that Kamiyah Mobley had been found, Manigo took to Facebook to defend her abductor

A cousin of Gloria Williams said the revelation was 'brand new to all of us.'

Tesha Stephens spoke briefly with reporters on Friday outside the Walterboro home where Kamiyah was raised. 

She said she didn't know how the young woman discovered her past and that the news was 'something brand new to all of us'. 

'Right now she's holding up... She's processing everything and she's probably going to have to take this day-by-day,' she said. 'This was something brand new to all of us.' 

Susan Alls, Williams' aunt, remains unconvinced that Kamiyah is not truly part of their family.

'There has to be something going on with the DNA, whatever they did,' she said.   

The sensational news solves a cold case that accumulated more than 2,500 tips and captivated both the city and the country for more than a decade.

A tip received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children last year led Jacksonville police to South Carolina.

It was there they found an 18-year-old woman with Kamiyah Mobley's birth date but a different name and quickly discovered that fraudulent documents had been used to establish her identity. 

A DNA sample from the teen was taken and submitted to a crime lab, where it was matched with the original newborn DNA taken the day Kamiyah was born. The test confirmed the teen was, in fact, Kamiyah.   

 

 

 

Gloria Williams, 51, (left) has been arrested and charged with kidnapping and interference with custody. Pictured right is a sketch police released of the suspect after the kidnapping