Three years after Jacksonville police announced the discovery of Kamiyah Mobley and the arrest of the woman who kidnapped her from a downtown hospital more than 18 years earlier, a movie and documentary about the Jacksonville case is set to premiere Saturday night on cable TV.
“Stolen By My Mother: The Kamiyah Mobley Story” (8 p.m. Saturday, Lifetime) tells the true-crime story of the July 10, 1998, abduction of hours-old Kamiyah Mobley from then-University Medical Center (now UF Health Jacksonville) by Gloria Williams, a South Carolina woman dressed in medical scrubs who, after wandering the hospital’s halls, befriended 15-year-old Shanara Mobley and then stole her baby hours later.
Both Williams and Baby Kamiyah disappeared without a trace — for more than 18 years.
Then, on Jan. 13, 2017 — three years ago this week — Jacksonville police announced they had found Kamiyah safe and living with her abductor Williams in South Carolina.
The made-for-TV movie is the first greenlit by Lifetime in its partnership with “GMA” host Robin Roberts, who is producing the movie as well as a companion documentary set to air after the movie.
“The Kamiyah Mobley Story” — the first of Lifetime’s “Ripped from the Headlines” series for 2020 — stars Niecy Nash (TNT’s “Claws” and Netflix’s “When They See Us”) as Williams, Rayven Symone Ferrell (2018′s “The Hate U Give”) as Kamiyah Mobley and Ta’Rhonda Jones (Fox’s “Empire”) as Shanara Mobley.
The discovery of Kamiyah in January 2017 came more than a year after Williams confessed to Kamiyah — whom she had raised as Alexis Manigo — that she had taken her at birth when Manigo pressed her for her Social Security card so she could get a job.
Manigo didn’t turn her in, but she eventually told someone else the secret. In August and November of 2016, two different tips came in to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about the Mobley baby from 1998 being alive and well in Walterboro, S.C., with Williams. When Kamiyah was found, Williams was arrested and jailed.
In June 2018 a judge sentenced Williams to 18 years in prison, one year for each year the family suffered not knowing if Kamiyah was dead or alive.
Also premiering Saturday night after the movie is “Beyond the Headlines: The Kamiyah Mobley Story with Robin Roberts,” featuring an interview with Kamiyah Mobley chronicling her life over the last three years since police revealed her true identity and the arrest and conviction of the only mother she had known for the first 18 years of her life.
The documentary (10 p.m., Lifetime) is also set to include an interview with Eileen Kelley, the former Times-Union reporter who contributed to the newspaper’s coverage of the case in recent years and reported and narrated a six-part serial podcast “Have You Seen Kamiyah?” retelling the story of the kidnapping and discovery of Kamiyah, the arrest and trial of Williams and the aftermath of it all on Kamiyah’s mother.
Additional airings of the movie are set for 11:03 p.m., Saturday, 10:03 p.m. Sunday and noon Jan. 25.