Melissa Highsmith’s family asserts that she was abducted in 1971 from South Carolina, more than 1,000 miles away, in Fort Worth. Melissa was just 22 months old when she was taken from her Fort Worth, Texas, home in August 1971. She was taken by Ruth Johnson, who volunteered to watch for Melissa for the day but never returned her to her parents.
For more than 50 years, Melissa lived in Fort Worth without knowing who she was or the facts of her abduction. Everyone had been anticipating the emotional meeting for a very long time, which brought an end to a decades-long search for answers.
The extraordinary drama surrounding the disappearance of Melissa Highsmith in South Carolina ended on Saturday, according to a report from the Charleston local news station WCIV and a press release from her family.
Case of Melissa Highsmith’s Kidnapping
When Melissa Highsmith was reportedly abducted from her Fort Worth, Texas home in August 1971, she was only 22 months old. When Highsmith was a year old, her mother, Alta Apantenco, published a notice in the Fort Worth, Texas, newspaper asking for a babysitter.
Ruth Johnson was recruited by Apantenco without ever having met her because Melissa, who was raising Melissa alone, needed someone to care for her daughter while she worked. On the day Melissa disappeared, the babysitter took up the 21-month-old kid from the care of her mother’s roommate while Melissa’s mother was at work.
In the more than 50 years after Melissa Highsmith’s kidnapping case was reported to the police, her family has never forgotten her, even organizing birthday parties for her every November.
More recently, they started the Facebook group “Finding Melissa Highsmith” and pleaded for help in finding their missing relative. Many individuals began seeking for Melissa Highsmith after her kidnapping case made headlines in the media in the hope that she would one day be found and reunited with her family.
Even though the criminal statute of limitations passed 20 years after Melissa became 18 years old, the Fort Worth Police Department is determined to complete this investigation and discover all there is to know about Melissa’s 1951 abduction.
Update on Melissa Highsmith’s health
After more than fifty years, the kidnapping case involving Melissa Highsmith has been resolved. In November 2022, the infant who had been abducted from her family in Texas in 1971 was at long last reunited with them. This was a good thing that happened, and it made the news.
Information on Melissa Highsmith’s health status is not available online. Melissa, though, seems to be in excellent health while seeing the family photos that have been submitted. Melissa had always accompanied Melanie, so she was unaware that her family was hunting for her.
According to a statement obtained by the Guardian on Monday, the missing person was reunited with her mother, father, and two of her four siblings on Saturday during a celebration at the family’s church in Fort Worth.
Since Melissa had spent most of her childhood in Fort Worth, her family claimed in postings on the “WE FOUND MELISSA!!!” Facebook page that she was unaware of her kidnapping. Family members have said that they don’t know what happened to the person who kidnapped Melissa when she was a baby.
Melissa said that she left her family at the age of 15 because she didn’t lead a respectable life. Highsmith also said that after changing her name to Melanie, she would go back to using her name.
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