Woman reveals how a selfie with a school friend revealed she’d been ‘stolen’ as a baby – when her real parents spotted her in the photo
- Miché Solomon, 21, from Cape Town, shocked when she took snap with friend
- She found her likeness to a friend at school called Cassidy Nurse was uncanny
- They learned they were sisters, and Miché was ‘stolen’ from hospital as a baby
- Miché has now spoken about devatasting ordeal, saying she was left ‘in shock’
A woman has revealed her shock after a selfie with a friend at school led her to uncovering that the woman she believed to be her ‘mother’ had actually stolen her from a hospital.
Miché Solomon, 21, from Cape Town, was shocked when she took snap with friend from school called Cassidy Nurse, who was three years younger but looked identical to her.
After showing the image to their parents, the girls later discovered they were half sisters and that Miché was actually born Zephany Nurse, who had been abducted from Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town 17 years previously and had never been found.
Speaking for the first time since the ordeal, Miché said she was devastated by what had happened, telling the BBC: ‘I sat there in shock. My life was out of control.’
Miché Solomon, 21, from Cape Town, was shocked when she took snap with friend from school called Cassidy Nurse, who was three years younger but looked identical to her.
Miché said she had felt an instant connection to the younger girl Cassidy, and that the two joked about being sisters in thre school corridors.
But after taking a selfie where they looked eerily similar, the teenagers showed their parents with surprise.
When Cassidy’s parents, Celeste and Morne Nurse, saw the photo they asked to know what Miché’s birthday was.
A few weeks later, she was called to the headmasters office and told that the woman she believed to be her birth mother had in fact stolen her from hospital 17 years earlier.
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
At first, she said she was skeptical of the story, but she agreed to a DNA test which proved conclusively that the Nurses were her parents.
She was left devastated by the revelation, saying: ‘I sat there in shock. My life was out of control.’
Miché was left devastated when the police went on to arrest Lavona Solomon, accusing her of walking into the hospital and taking her from her parents.
She said losing the woman she thought was her mother had ‘broken’ her, and said she was overwhelmed at the thought that Lovona was not her mother.
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)
She was crushed by the thought that the woman she thought was her mother had lied to her.
It is thought Lavona concealed a miscarriage and then faked the rest of her pregnancy before stealing the baby, bringing the baby home and pretending she had given birth alone.
And 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.
Despite being divorced, they even celebrated her birthday every year – not knowing their daughter was living just 5km from them.
Miché then faced the daunting prospect of meeting her biological parents, something which she said she had mixed feelings about.
She said that she ‘felt nothing’ about the Nurses, but suggested she felt it would be ‘a shame’ for them as they’d been through a lot.
In 2016, Lavona Solomon was sentenced to 10 years in jail for kidnapping, fraud and violating the Children’s Act.
She struggled to form a relationship with her biological family and even said she ‘hated’ them for taking her mother away.
Desperate for answers, Miché went on to visit her mother in prison, but she simple told her that she would tell her the truth one day.