NC family waits to reunite with woman kidnapped as a baby

Carlina White was born in 1987. Shortly after her birth, she disappeared.

While federal, state and local authorities search for the woman who raised White – Ann Pettway, 44, of Raleigh – her aunts and uncle in Hertford County found out that White was looking for them.

Sheila Jones, Dorothy White and Kermit Wynn are siblings of White's father, Carl Tyson. On Friday, the trio recalled how hard he took his child's disappearance.

"It is bad when you bring a child into this earth and never seem them again. It is a hurting thing," Wynn said.

Jones said the family never gave up hope. "Even more than 20 years, you have hope. You can still have hope because you never know," she said.

Carlina White never felt certain about who she was. At 23, as she searched online listings of missing people, she found herself.

She also found her family. She was reunited Thursday with her mother, Joy White, in Manhattan. Her North Carolina relatives can't wait to catch up with her as well.

"It is just amazing," Wynn concluded.

Pettway, 44, is on probation in Wake County for a 2010 embezzlement case. A neighbor said she was last seen in Raleigh Friday.

Investigators said there is no statute of limitations on kidnapping a child, but no charges have been filed in the case yet.