Abducted: The Carlina White Story is a historical drama (based on a true story) which premiered on US television (Lifetime) in 2012.
Here is some basic information about this drama:
** Directed by Vondie Curtis-Hall
** Written by Elizabeth Hunter
** Released on DVD in 2013
** Run time: 88 minutes
The cast includes the following:
** Keke Palmer as Carlina White//Nedra “Netty” Nance
** Sherri Shepherd as her mother Joy White
** Roger Cross as her father Carl Tyson
** Aunjanue Ellis as Ann Pettway
** Afton Williamson as Cassandra Johnson (Ann’s sister)
Since this drama is based on a true story, the basic facts are part of the public record. They are not a secret. This is why I feel free to mention some of them here.
While this drama is based on a true story, it is not a documentary film. It is a dramatized version of events. Not everything happened exactly as shown here, but the basic story is true.
I do not wish to spoil the viewing for anyone. I am not going to say too much about what happens in this drama. But I have to mention some details in order to explain and justify my rating.
Part one
Carlina White was born on 15 July 1987. When she was just 19 days old, she was abducted from the hospital in Harlem where she had been born less than three weeks before.
The abductor Ann Pettway had previously suffered three miscarriages. She entered the hospital, disguised as a nurse. She was clever and lucky. This is why she got away with it.
The police could not solve this crime. The parents continued the search on their own, but they did not get any results, either.
The abductor gave Carlina a new name – Nedra Nance – and raised as her own child. Nedra, who called herself Netty, grew up thinking Ann was her mother.
As she grew older, Netty began to suspect that Ann was not her real mother, but for many years, she did not know the whole truth.
In 2010, when she was 23, Netty solved her own case. Browsing on the internet, she visited a website about missing children and she stopped at a picture of a child who had been abducted in 1987 and who could be her.
It was her!
She contacted the Bureau of Missing Persons and told them her story.
Her parents Joy and Carl had divorced shortly after the abduction, but they were still alive, so they all took a DNA test. When the results came back, they showed that Netty was the daughter of Joy and Carl. She was the baby, who had been abducted 23 years before.
Carlina was reunited with her biological parents, but this was not the end of the story. And there was no happy ending for any of them.
While Carlina was glad to find her real parents, she could not just swop one family for another. And even though she now knew that Ann had abducted her from the hospital, she still saw her as the woman who had raised her and she could not just turn her back on her.
For the kidnapper, there was no happy ending, either. In 2012, she pleaded guilty to one count of abduction and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. She was released in 2021, having served almost ten years.
Since the reunion in 2010, it seems, Carlina keeps in touch with Joy and Carl as well as with Cassandra, who is Ann’s sister.
Although her official name is Carlina, she calls herself Netty. She does not want to use the name Nedra, which was forced on her by her abductor.
Part two
What do reviewers say about this drama?
Here are some results:
66 percent = IMDb
69 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)
On Amazon there are at the moment more than 800 ratings of this product, more than 200 with reviews.
The average rating is 4.7 stars which corresponds to a rating of 94 percent.
As you can see, the ratings are quite good. I understand. This is, in many ways, a good movie: dramatic, emotional, heart-breaking, and (to top it all) based on a true story.
As far as I know, the movie is fairly close to the true story. I like it, and I want to give it a good rating, but there are at least three flaws. Let me explain:
# 1. The birth certificate
In 2004, when Netty is 17, she becomes pregnant. She wants to have prenatal care. In order to get this, she has to show her birth certificate. When she does this, she is told the document is a forgery. She is also told there is no record of a Nedra Nance born in July 1987.
Now she knows something is wrong, but when she confronts Ann about it, Ann just says that she is the daughter of a woman who left her on Ann’s doorstep:
“I am the one who raised you and this is all you need to know.”
Apparently, Netty accepts this explanation, although it is very far-fetched. Is this really true? Or only something that was created for the movie?
There is another problem here. This cannot be the first time Netty had to show her birth certificate. In 1993, when she was 6, she was enrolled in a school. In order to sign up for a school, you must show your birth certificate.
Why was the forgery not discovered back in 1993? Why was it not discovered until 2004, when she was 17?
Perhaps the answer
is that there was no internet in 1993. At that time, it was not so easy to
verify an official document. In 2004, when the internet was available, it was
easier to verify an official document. It was easier to discover a forgery.
Whatever the answer, it is wrong to ignore the question. The issue of the forged birth certificate could and should have been explored in more detail.
# 2. The DNA testing
When Netty thinks she has found her biological parents, they all take a DNA test. But the results of the test are not available at once. They have to wait for several days.
While they are waiting, Netty decides to visit Joy and there is a big celebration where the long-lost Carlina is welcomed back into the family.
Why would Netty go to a big celebration like this, and why would Joy arrange a big celebration like this, before the results of the DNA test were available?
As it turned out, the results were positive – Netty was indeed the missing Carlina – but what if the test had been negative? Again, the viewer must ask: is this really true? Or only something created for the movie?
# 3. The money
In 1987, Joy and Carl sued the hospital, because Carlina had been abducted from the place. They demanded 100 million dollars for pain and suffering. Six years later, in 1993, a settlement was made. The hospital agreed to pay Joy and Carl the sum of 750,000 dollars.
It seems the money was split three ways:
** 25 per cent
went to Joy the mother
** 25 per cent
went to Carl the father
** The remaining 50 per cent were placed in a trust fund for Carlina. The fund was frozen until she was 21, this is until 2008.
When Carlina finally meets her parents, they do not say anything about the settlement or the trust fund, but she finds out anyway. When she asks Joy about it, Joy simply says:
“That money is gone.”
This answer is very strange. If 50 percent of the settlement (375,000 dollars) had been placed in a bank in 1993 and if this money had earned interest for 15 years, the balance would have increased with at least 100,000 dollars.
By 2008, the total amount would have been at least 475,000 dollars, almost half a million.
But since Carlina had not been found in 2008, Joy and Carl decided to take over the fund and they began to spend the money.
When Netty decides to raise the question, Joy simply says “That money is gone.” If this is true, it means that Joy and Carl had spent almost half a million dollars in less than two years! How could they spend so much money in such a short time? And if this is true, what did they buy?
Something does not make sense here. Joy claims she never lost hope, that she always believed Carlina was out there and that someday she would come back to them.
If this is true, why did she and Carl decide to spend the money in the trust fund? If Joy really believed Carlina would one day come back to them, she would have insisted that the trust fund could not be touched, that it had to remain intact.
In the movie, Carlina says the money is not important, but it is obvious that she is disappointed with her parents, for two reasons:
(A) They failed to tell her about the settlement and the trust fund.
(B) They had spent all the money, including the trust fund.
In this way, the parents had betrayed their daughter two times. The question of the money has added significance because of the social and economic differences between the two families. While Joy and Carl belong to the middle class, the Pettway family is poor.
When Joy says: “That money is gone,” that is the end of the discussion. The topic is not discussed again.
We can understand why Joy wants to bury this issue as quickly as possible. It is an embarrassing question. But why does Netty let her get away with it?
The question of the money could and should have been explored in greater detail.
Conclusion
As stated above, this is - in many ways - a good movie, but as you can see, there are some flaws which cannot be ignored. I have to remove one star because of these flaws. This is why I think this product deserves a rating of four stars (80 percent).
REFERENCES
Beyond the Headlines: The Carlina White Story
A documentary film which premiered in 2012
** Run time = 41 minutes
** Available online
In the documentary film, there are interviews with the real Carlina White and her parents. There are also interviews with members of the Pettway family. The documentary film is an interesting supplement to the historical drama shown on Lifetime.
Robert Kolker,
“Kidnapped at Birth,”
New York Magazine
21 October 2011
Adrian Mayer,
“Woman solves her own kidnapping”
Medium
11 November 2021
“Carlina White was abducted as a baby – Then she solved her own kidnapping 23 years later”
By Jessica O’Connor, edited by John Kuroski
All That’s Interesting
18 April 2022, updated 5 May 2022
*****
Abducted:
The Carlina White Story
A historical drama which premiered
on US television (Lifetime)
in 2012
*****
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