Zephany Nurse Story – Kidnapper Lavona Solomon Released From Prison

Zephany Nurse Story – Kidnapper Lavona Solomon Released From Prison

Zephany Nurse born 28 April 1997 is a South African woman who was abducted from Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa on 30 April 1997, when she was two days old. Nurse was reunited with her biological parents, Morne and Celeste Nurse, 17 years later after DNA tests confirmed her identity

Zephany Nurse Story

Zephany Nurse born 28 April 1997 is a South African woman who was abducted from Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town,from her biological parents, Morne and Celeste Nurse.

Celeste described a person in a nurse’s uniform comforting her while her baby was still in the nearby cot, before falling asleep. When Celeste had woken up, a nurse kept asking her where the baby was, and at this point she realized that Zephany had been taken. The hospital contacted the police for assistance in searching the hospital; however only a few untraceable items were found, including Zephany’s baby nest, a baby garment, and a handbag with no identifiable items. A pillow was found in a tunnel that was intended to provide direct access to the women in labour to the ward from the street. The tunnel also provided access to the old main building, psychiatric department and out-patient section, which at the time had unrestricted access.

The Nurse family believe the kidnapper took precautions to move through the ward unnoticed. The pillow was probably used to fake a pregnancy, as no one would question a pregnant woman moving around in a maternity ward. The woman, now dressed as a nurse in maroon pants and oatmeal top, made an effort to befriend the mothers in the ward. One of the expectant mothers, who remembered the kidnapper’s face, had spoken to her briefly. On another occasion, this same mother found her holding her baby, and when questioned the woman replied that the baby had been crying and she was comforting it. In a later interview Celeste Nurse said: “Her intention was to steal a child, she didn’t care which child it was.”Five days after Zephany’s birth, the Nurse family went home without their daughter.

Celeste Nurse clung to the hope that what happened was not real, or a kind of sick joke and that someone would bring her daughter. “We came home to nothing.” Every year since the kidnapping, the Nurse family would celebrate Zephany’s birthday on 28 April, in an attempt to keep the search for her in the media. Celeste has also given a number of interviews, many at times when other kidnappings have occurred, always offering support to the affected families.

In January 2015, the Nurses’ second daughter, Cassidy Nurse, started at a new school where Zephany, then aged seventeen, coincidentally was also in attendance under the name Miché Solomon. Friends of Zephany commented on the uncanny resemblance between the two girls, and despite their 4-year age difference, they formed an almost immediate friendship. Once Morne Nurse heard about the physical similarities between the two girls, he arranged with Cassidy to meet Zephany at a local takeaway. After this first meeting, Morne contacted the investigating officer in the disappearance of Zephany.

The police began an investigation, and after Zephany’s purported parents could not provide proof of her birth,DNA tests were conducted. The results were conclusive that Zephany was the Nurses’ child, and she was removed to a place of safety by the Department of Social Services. The Nurse family were granted visitations, and apparently, Zephany was already calling them “mother” and “father” at this time. In March 2016, a woman, who was not named for legal reasons, was convicted of the abduction. In August 2016, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison; her name was still withheld “to protect the identity she gave to the baby.

Her kidnapper was identified as Lavona Solomon. Miché Solomon struggled to form a relationship with her biological family, and after turning 18, as her biological parents were then divorced, she chose to move back in with the father she had grown up with, who had been absolved of any involvement in her kidnapping. Miché Solomon chose to keep the name that she was raised with, and she says she has forgiven Lavona and regularly visits her in prison. Miché, who now has two children of her own, says she is still living in the family home, waiting for the woman she still refers to as “my mother” to return

Kidnapper Lavona Solomon Released From Prison

In 2016, Solomon was sentenced to 10 years in prison for kidnapping Nurse as a newborn baby in 1997, but only served seven years of her prison time before being released. Solomon kidnapped Nurse when she was only three days old at the time in April 1997. She walked out of Groote Schuur Hospital with her while her mother was sleeping.

Solomon was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for kidnapping, fraud and contravening the Children’s Act in 2016. She only served seven years of her prison term. Solomon will be admitted into the system of community corrections and serve the remainder of her sentence until it expires in 2026.

Zephany Nurse Reaction To Kidnapper’s Release

Zephany Nurse (Miché Solomon) said she feels a sense of relief ahead of the release of the woman jailed for kidnapping her. Nurse said she last saw Solomon at a parole hearing in 2022.

“I think it’s more of a relief for me. I think now that everybody can actually move on with their lives and everything can now settle down, so I am quite relieved. I think I’m more at peace with the fact that she’s coming out and it stems a lot from forgiveness and just moving on with life.”