Baby snatched from her sleeping mother's arms is reunited with her family 17 years later

A baby who was stolen from her sleeping mother's arms 17 years ago has been reunited with her parents after ending up at the same school as her biological sister.

Zephany Nurse was snatched from a Cape Town hospital in 1987 when she was just three days old.

She was reconciled with her biological family after pupils at a high school Cape Town noticed a striking similarity between girls Zephany and Cassidy, born three years apart

Snatched: Zephany Nurse pictured with her mother at a Cape Town hospital in 1987

Seeing the resemblance, Cassidy, aged 14, invited the older lookalike to meet her parents, and they immediately recognised their long lost first-born and contacted police.

Her real parents Celeste and Morne Nurse had been living only a short distance apart all these years and had never given up hope of finding her, celebrating her birthday every year with their three other children.DNA tests revealed Zephany was their child and police have now charged a 50 year old woman with kidnapping. 

  

Never forgotten: The nurse family celebrated Zephany's birthday each year in her absence. They have been reunited after fellow pupils remarked how similar she looked to what was in fact her biological sister

Celeste Nurse, right, leaves court today after attending the appearance of a woman charged with kidnapping her daughter 17 years ago

Zephany grew up with a different name, and a different family, never knowing she was not their real daughter.  

But last month Cassidy started high school at the same school as Zephany and fellow pupils noticed a startling resemblance she bore to a final-year student. 

Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel André Traut confirmed that a woman had been arrested. She and her husband, who is also in his fifties, have no other children.

'The suspect is being charged with kidnapping, fraud and contravening sections of the Children's Act, in that she fraudulently pretended that she was the biological mother of a child,' Traut said.

'The kidnapped girl has since been placed in the care of the Department of Social Services of the Western Cape Government.'