‘South Africa’s Madeleine McCann’, 24, who was snatched from hospital as a newborn and raised by her kidnapper says she now has a good relationship with her birth parents after initially rejecting them to support her ‘mother’
- Zephany Nurse, 24, from Cape Town, shocked when she took snap with friend
- She found her likeness to classmate at school called Cassidy Nurse was uncanny
- They learned they were sisters, and Zephany was ‘stolen’ from hospital as a baby
- Zephany talked about the ordeal during an appearance on This Morning today
A woman dubbed ‘South Africa’s Madeleine McCann’ after she was abducted as a three-day-old baby has revealed how she now has a good relationship with her birth parents after initially rejecting them to support kidnapper who raised her.
Zephany Nurse, 24, from Cape Town, was left shocked when she took a photograph with a school friend called Cassidy Nurse, who was three years younger but looked identical to her.
After Cassidy showed the image to her parents, Morne and Celeste, the classmates discovered they were siblings, with Zephany having been snatched from her sleeping mother’s arms at Groote Schuur Hospital in April 1997 by a woman dressed in a nurse’s uniform.
The kidnapper, Lavona Solomon, raised her as her own for nearly 18 years before being sentenced to 10 years in jail for kidnapping, fraud and violating the Children’s Act.
Appearing on This Morning today with her birth family, Zephany admitted that she couldn’t’ believe it at first when a positive DNA test proved who her real parents were – but now has a ‘good’ relationship with them.
Zephany Nurse (pictured far right, with her birth family), 24, from Cape Town, was left shocked when she took a photograph with a school friend called Cassidy Nurse, who was three years younger but looked identical to her
After Cassidy showed the image to her parents, Morne and Celeste, the classmates discovered they were siblings, with Zephany (pictured shortly after her birth) having been snatched from her sleeping mother’s arms at Groote Schuur Hospital in April 1997 by a woman dressed in a nurse’s uniform
Recalling the moment she discovered her true identity, Zephany said: ‘At the time when they presented to me that they were going to do the DNA test, no way in my normal, right mind, in my 17 years of age at that time, could I ever possibly think that this DNA test could actually be positive.
‘Because life was so normal for me. It shook my entire world when the results came back. It was shocking.’
Although the reunion between Zephany and her parents was celebrated as a ‘dream come true’ for both sides, relations between them initially soured as the then teenager cut off her birth family in support for the woman who had raised her.
However, mother-of-two Zephany said having her own children has helped ‘open up her heart to both her mums and daddies’
‘We are definitely in a good space right now, and myself being a mum to a daughter and a son has definitely contributed to us having the relationship that we have right now,’ she said.
The kidnapper, Lavona Solomon, raised Zephany (pictured) as her own for nearly 18 years before being sentenced to 10 years in jail for kidnapping, fraud and violating the Children’s Act
Appearing on This Morning today with her birth family, Zephany (pictured in the first selfie with her sister) admitted that she couldn’t’ believe it at first when a positive DNA test proved who her real parents were – but now has a ‘good’ relationship with them
‘It has really broadened up in my mind to more people being involved, and more people being involved in their lives.
‘So being a mum, being a parent, has really my opened up heart, opened up my mind, to both my mums and my daddies, but mostly to my biological family as well.
Like the kidnapper’s husband – whom she believed to be her father – Zephany had no idea of her true identity.
On the tragedy, her biological mother Celeste said: ‘Now, the memories are still fresh in my mind. That’s something you can’t forget, it stays there forever and ever, the rest of your life.
Sibling Cassidy always knew she had an older sister growing up who she’d never had the opportunity to meet – but said she ‘always had a feeling in my heart that I’d meet her’.
Lavona is thought to have concealed a miscarriage and then faked her pregnancy before taking Zephany home from the hospital (pictured arriving at Cape Town High Court at her trial in 2016)
‘The minute I found her I felt relieved, I had such adrenaline inside me because I didn’t know what to think,’ she added. ‘I didn’t know who to turn to because I felt so emotional and excited and scared and my heart was just pounding outside my chest.’
She continued: ‘My relationship is very good [with my sister], we’re very close and throughout the years that we have spent together the bond has grown so much, our relationship is very good.’
Recalling the discovery of his daughter, Zephany’s father admitted that it was ‘really difficult and hard to consume everything that was happening at the time’.
He said: ‘Looking at Zephany, the day I met her, it was phenomenal, everything about her was just Celeste, even when she speaks, Zephany and Cassidy, you cannot tell when you’re in a separate room [who is who].
‘It wasn’t easy in the beginning. There was a lot of heartbreak and happiness at the same time, but it’s good.’
Morne Nurse and Celeste Nurse, the biological parents of the South African born kidnapped child Zephany Nurse, embrace each other after court proceedings in Cape Town in 2016
Zephany was a 17-year-old high school student when classmates started telling her about a girl several years younger than her who she looked ‘identical’ to.
Unaware they were related, the girls struck up a close friendship, despite their age difference, and soon became inseparable.
Zephany previously revealed that she had felt an instant connection to Cassidy, and that the two had even joked about being sisters, reported the BBC.
But the true connection didn’t come to light until Cassidy showed her parents, Celeste and Morne Nurse, a selfie they had taken at school. When they saw the photo they asked to know when Zephany’s birthday was.
Morne met Zephany, who told him her birthday was the same day as his missing daughter’s and he went to the police with his suspicions.
A few weeks later, Zephany was called to the headmaster’s office and told that the woman she believed to be her birth mother may have in fact stolen her from hospital 17 years earlier.
The case of Zephany Nurse
The case of missing Zephany Nurse was one of South Africa’s biggest and longest running news stories.
It was found that Lavona Solomon took Zephany Nurse from Groote Schuur hospital in Cape Town in April 1997 while her mother was in bed recovering from a C-section.
Lavona told the court she hid a miscarriage from her husband and had bought the baby for £50 at a train station from a woman who promised to help her with an adoption.
Her lies meant her betrayed husband brought the baby up as his own, unaware of his wife’s dark secret.
Zephany only learned of her true identity after an extraordinary twist in the lifelong hunt for her – when she made friends with a girl at school who turned out to be her sister.
Despite being sceptical of the story, Zephany had she agreed to a DNA test which proved conclusively that the Nurses were her parents.
Zephany was further crushed when the police went on to arrest her mother, Lavona Solomon, and accused her of walking into the hospital and taking her from her real parents as a baby.
The then teenager said the arrest had ‘broken’ her and that she was overwhelmed at the thought that Lavona was not her mother. She was further devastated by the thought that the mother who had raised her had lied to her.
It is thought Lavona concealed a miscarriage and then faked the rest of her pregnancy before stealing Zephany from the hospital, bringing the baby home and pretending she had given birth alone.
Although Celeste and Morne Nurse had gone on to welcome three more children, including Cassidy, they had never stopped holding out hope that one day they would be reunited with their daughter.
Celeste celebrated her missing daughter’s birthday every year (pictured, outside Western Cape High Court in 2016)
They even celebrated her birthday every year – not knowing their daughter was living just 5km from them.
Lavona Solomon’s trial at the high court in Cape Town began in August 2015, with both Zephany and her biological parents there to hear her testimony.
In court, Lavona gave far-fetched evidence about how she was handed Zephany by a mysterious woman at a busy train station in Cape Town. It was dismissed by Judge John Hope as ‘a fairytale’ which ‘should be treated with the contempt it deserves’.
She denied she had dressed as a nurse to get onto the maternity ward at the Groote Schurr hospital where Zephany was snatched in April 1997, despite being identified by eye witnesses following her arrest.
In 2016, Lavona Solomon was sentenced to 10 years in jail for kidnapping, fraud and violating the Children’s Act.
Zephany said she was crushed by what happened, explaining: ‘I felt like death was happening to me. I was like, “How am I gonna cope? How am I going to get through life without the mother that I had every day in my life?”‘
The then teenager was left devastated by her mother’s imprisonment and admitted that she struggled to form a relationship with her biological family, even ‘hating’ them for taking Lavona away.
In 2019, Zephany admitted she still visits the woman who raised her in prison and sometimes wishes time would ‘hurry up’ because she is waiting for her ‘mother’ to come home.
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