Lifetime’s “Abducted: The Carlina White Story” based on true events

On Saturday, Oct. 6, Lifetime will present the world premiere of Abducted: The Carlina White Story.

The original film, starring Keke Palmer (True Jackson, VP), Aunjanue Ellis (The Help), Sherri Shepherd (The View) and Roger Cross (24) tells the stunning true story of White, who was abducted from a New York hospital in 1987 when she was just 19 days old, then solved her own kidnapping more than two decades later.

Shepherd and Cross portray Carlina’s parents, Joy White and Carl Tyson, who took their infant daughter to Harlem Hospital seeking treatment for her fever. Shortly after the baby was admitted, she was tucked into an oversize tote and spirited away by Ann Pettway (Ellis), a disturbed young woman posing as a nurse. Pettway rechristened the child “Nejdra Nance” — Netty for short — and set about raising her in Bridgeport, Conn., less than an hour away from Carlina’s real family back in New York City.

• See images of Carlina White, Joy White and Carl Tyson here.

As Carlina (Palmer) grew older and realized she looked nothing like Pettway, she began to suspect something was awry. The final straw came when, pregnant with her own daughter and eager to start receiving medical care, Carlina asked Pettway for a copy of her birth certificate. The older woman admitted that she didn’t have one, saying she’d raised Carlina for a drug-addicted acquaintance.

Twenty-three years after she was taken, Carlina White spied her own baby pictures on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children web site and, in January 2011, she reunited with Joy and Carl.

in July of this year, Pettway was sentenced to 12 years in prison for kidnapping Carlina — the first-known infant abduction from a New York hospital.

Abducted: The Carlina White Story premieres Saturday, Oct. 6, at 8/7 CT on Lifetime.

Immediately following the film, the network will present the documentary Beyond the Headlines: The Carlina White Story featuring the real Carlina White, Joy White and Carl Tyson as well as members of Pettway’s family offering their own perspectives about the case.

Abducted The Carlina White Story: Image/video: Lifetime