The news was a bombshell for Netty, who was left with dozens of questions about her life that Ann Pettway refused to answer, according to New York Magazine. By day, life went on. Netty had her own baby, Samani, in 2005. She graduated from high school, got a job, and moved to her own place in Atlanta, Georgia. But the questions Netty had about her childhood kept her awake. She spent nights searching for her birth mother, Googling things on the internet about missing children cases in Connecticut around the time of her birth.

In 2011, 23 years after her abduction, Netty found a photo of herself as baby Carlina on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website, per New York Magazine. There was even a birthmark matching the one that Netty still has in the photo, identifying her with certainty. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) got involved, and Pettway was eventually found to be the kidnapper, per The New York Times.