The second volume (opens in new tab) of Netflix's reboot of the classic true crime series "Unsolved Mysteries" (opens in new tab) explores the tragic serial abduction of Christopher Dunsby and Shane Walker in this episode. (opens in new tab) The boys were abducted from the same Harlem playground in 1989, just three months apart, and were 2 and 19 months old, respectively. But the parents of Dansby and Walker hope to be reunited with their sons, even though it has been more than 30 years since they last saw their children. This is supported by the story of Carlina White, a Harlem native who practically solved her own kidnapping case after being held captive by kidnappers for 23 years.

White was separated from her parents from 1987 to 2011, making it the longest resolved child abduction case in the history of the Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the first case in which an abductee led the reunification effort, Bob Lowry of the Center told the Connecticut Post newspaper in 2011. Here is everything we know about White's miraculous case, from the shocking abduction to the joyous reunion with his birth parents.

White was abducted from Harlem Hospital Center in New York City in August 1987. Joy White and Carl Tyson brought their newborn daughter to the hospital after she contracted an infection and developed a high fever, but within hours she was secretly removed from the hospital by Ann Pettway.

According to the New York Times (opens in new tab), Pettway, who had been hanging around the facility for at least several weeks if not months before the kidnapping, was dressed as a nurse and was interacting with White's parents when they arrived at the hospital. White was found missing in the early morning hours of August 4, and security guards reported seeing a woman matching Petway's description leaving the hospital around 3:30 a.m.

Petway, with the help of her biological mother, as Nejdra Nance, nicknamed Nettie, in Bridgeport, Conn. raised White. White told New York (open in new tab) magazine in 2011 that Pettway was a somewhat distant but responsible caregiver. I wouldn't say she was the best mother, but she made me who I am," White said. She was strict, but cool. All my friends said she was the coolest mom.

White was already somewhat suspicious of the fact that she did not look physically similar to Pettway, but the first real red light came in 2005, when White became pregnant and asked Pettway for her birth certificate in order to purchase health insurance. While Pettway stalled, White visited the Connecticut Bureau of Vital Statistics, where the clerk could not find a record of her name and date of birth, accused White of trying to obtain a false identity, and reported the matter to the state Department of Children and Families, White told New York.

A few days later, Pettway confessed that she was not White's birth mother, but claimed that White had been abandoned by her parents at birth. When Pettway refused to provide any further information, White's suspicions deepened, and she spent the next several years searching the Bridgeport area for a kidnapping story. Then she found a photo on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's website of a baby that looked a lot like her own young daughter, who had been abducted in 1987.

She called the center's hotline in December 2010 and was encouraged and helped by Petway's sister, Cassandra Johnson, according to the Connecticut Post (opens in new tab). With the center's help, she was ultimately able to narrow down her search for her birth parents to two possible cases. After comparing a photo of baby "Neydra" with a photo of baby Carlina and finding the same birthmark on White's arm as on baby Carlina, the NYPD contacted Joy and Carl for a DNA sample, and even before the DNA analysis was completed, White was convinced that all three were a match. began talking with Joy and Carl by phone and flew to New York City to meet them in early 2011.

Finally, as White was about to board a plane back to Atlanta, the NYPD contacted her and told her that her DNA matched Joy and Carl's.

Due to overwhelming media attention and mixed feelings about the family that raised her, White distanced herself from her birth parents for some time after their initial reunion, but in late 2011, she told New York reporters that they were on good terms and spoke on the phone occasionally.

She told the magazine of her plans to return to her birth name, which "wasn't given to me by the Pettway family or by the White family. It's a name I gave myself." White has not been heard from since late 2011, but perhaps now that the mystery of his life has been solved, he wants to give himself and his family as normal a life as possible.

Meanwhile, Pettway turned herself in to authorities in January 2011 and pleaded guilty to federal kidnapping charges, the New York Times reported (opens in new tab); at her sentencing hearing in 2012, she apologized for her crimes, and her lawyers said she was "not motivated by greed or a desire to do harm, but a sincere desire to have children She reportedly claimed that she was "motivated not by greed or a desire to harm, but by a sincere desire to have a child, combined with depression, grief, and serious mental illness over a failed attempt to conceive.

White did not appear at Pettway's trial, but her own parents provided emotional testimony at the sentencing. In it, Carl told Pettway, "What you deserve is 23 years, which you took from me," and Joy said, "I am broken into a million pieces." Pettway was eventually sentenced to 12 years in prison.