According to WJLA, in 1966 Sarah Peterson gave birth to Roberta Lavonne Peterson, who was kidnapped by her babysitter, Alberta Lathern shortly after. In January 2020, 53 years later, they were reunited.
At 16-years-old Sarah was kicked out of her home because she conceived a child out of wedlock. Forced to fend for herself and her newborn, getting a job was the only thing on her mind.
“I know I had to do what I had to do. I had to work and take care of this child. I had to do it.”
Lathern was referred to the young mother by a relative. At first, she was very kind and nothing seemed strange.
“She came off as very pleasant, very nice, very sweet, very loving person. I couldn’t say anything at that time, negative about her because she treated her so well,” Sarah Peterson stated. That would quickly change.”
One day she went to pick up her infant daughter but the babysitter was gone–the apartment was completely empty.
“She never said she was going to move. She never told us anything. Where in the world is she and she’s got our baby!”
Peterson went to the police but she received no help. Would you believe they told her she needed more evidence that someone stole her baby?
“When we went to the police station and told our story they said ‘I’m sorry you don’t have enough evidence. You don’t have enough evidence.”
Years would go by and Peterson would run up to other kids, hoping it was her daughter. According to the pained mother, it felt like the child she gave birth to had died.
“I would just run to the street and say is that her, is that her. I always looked at somebody’s child. Maybe that’s her. It’s like a death and that’s how it was. That my baby had died.”
Surprisingly, 53 years later, in Dec 2019, Sarah’s fate changed. Her sister Deborah, and Roberta’s daughter were picking up food at a soup kitchen.
Once their last names were called at the same time, the two began talking, which revealed they were related.
Roberta was told she was adopted when she was seven years old, but her babysitter never told her much else.
“I asked and asked but I always hit a brick wall,” she stated.
According to Lathern’s baby brother, Robert Welch, he thought there was more to the story.
Welch says when he was around 10 or 11-years-old his sister came home one day with a baby. He remembers that being odd because his sister wasn’t pregnant at the time.
“He told me he remembered a time when Alberta was pregnant but said there were complications, his sister had a miscarriage and could no longer bear children.”
Welch also admitted that plenty of secrets existed in their family and there was talk about his sister kidnapping Roberta.
Welch admitted that a lot of things in his family were hidden and kept quiet back then. Welch says there were rumblings years later that maybe his sister had kidnapped Roberta. But he figured since the police never showed up it must not be true.
Ultimately, the family story was that Lathern was given the child.
Welch says the family story is that a young woman his sister knew couldn’t care for her young daughter, so she gave the child to Alberta to raise.
Alberta Lathern died in 2007, taking many details with her.
Luckily, she’s no longer needed to bring the mother and daughter together.
In January, after half a century, Roberta and Sarah were reunited.
“I didn’t want to let her go. I think I was crushing her bones. We’re not talking about 10 years, 20, 30 years. We are talking about 53 years. Oh my God, 53 years!”
