Daughter Kidnapped at Birth Wants Fake Father, Her Kidnapper's Husband, to Walk Her Down the Aisle

daughter kidnapped at birth Miche Zephany Cape Town south africa Celeste Nurse Lavona Solomon Morne Nurse Cassidy Nurse Michael Solomon Girl Taken Paramount

By Lili Scott , Parent Herald Jul 26, 10:14 am

Photo: (Photo : JONATHAN BRADY/AFP via Getty Images)

A daughter kidnapped at birth is set to get married and has asked both her biological dad and fake father to walk her down the aisle.

Miche Zephany, from Cape Town, South Africa, was only days old when she was taken from the hospital by Lavona Solomon. Her birth mother, Celeste Nurse, was sleeping next to her and was unaware of the abduction as Lavona was dressed as a nurse when she took the baby. Her birth father, Morne Nurse, was not in the room when it happened.

When Zephany turned 17, she was told that a new and younger girl, Cassidy Nurse, had arrived in school and had an uncanny resemblance to her. Zephany said that she and the new girl clicked immediately, and they became instant friends.

Cassidy grew up knowing about her kidnapped older sister and had a gnawing suspicion that Zephany might be the child her parents had been searching for all these years. So, she told her father, Morne, and Zephany about it, with the latter feeling that this was a story straight out of a Hollywood film, per She the People.

Miche Zephany can't be angry at her fake parents

Zephany tried to find answers to Cassidy's theory, and they both discovered that Zephany's birth was registered only when she turned six years old. Zephany then decided to get a DNA test, which confirmed Cassidy's hunch. They were sisters, and Zephany was the long-lost daughter of Morne and Celeste.

Before Zephany's birth, the Solomons lost a child due to a miscarriage. Lavona faked her pregnancy without the knowledge of her husband, Michael Solomon. When she was ready to "give birth," she snatched a child at the hospital.

The couple raised the child with love and care. In an interview with Mirror, Zephany, now 25 years old and a mother of two children, said that she could not hate her fake parents because they gave her a good life.

She loves both sets of parents and wants them to be a part of her wedding to her long-term boyfriend, Justin Sheldon, in March 2022.

"I was raised by and lived with Michael," she said. "But I have my birth father Morne, too. My children know them both."

But Lavona was imprisoned for ten years in 2016, while Michael was not charged with any crime as he did not know about the kidnapping. Despite the turn of events, Zephany said that she has learned to love her fake parents even more because their actions showed that their motivation to abduct a child was driven by their desire to be parents and to love that child like their own.

Nurse's family still hurting but healing

Zephany's story has been turned into a documentary, "Girl, Taken," for the streaming platform Paramount+. Morne and Celeste heard their daughter's raw sentiments about her kidnappers for the first time via this program.

The Nurse family said they were shocked and hurt to hear that Zephany still longed for the Solomons despite their crime. Morne admitted via Metro that finding Zephany when she was already 17 was challenging to process after what he and Celeste had been through.

Zephany's abduction strained his marriage with Celeste, and they did divorce. However, Morne and Celeste reunited and remarried in 2020, as witnessed by their long-lost daughter.

But Morne said he and Michael have nothing but respect for each other. The birth father said this was the only way to deal with their family's issues so they could heal, reconnect, and rebuild a new future with Zephany and their grandkids.