Missing Texas girl found locked in North Carolina shed
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Texas authorities have confirmed the identification of a woman abducted as a baby more than 50 years ago in 1971.
Melissa Highsmith's family had been searching for her for decades, and on Nov. 22, they opened the results of a 23andMe test and got a match with Melissa's children. The Fort Worth Police Department on Thursday officially confirmed Highsmith's ID through a separate DNA test.
"The Fort Worth Police Department has completed official DNA testing which confirmed Melissa Highsmith’s identity. It is our hope that this test result will offer additional closure for the Highsmith family," the police department said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
The department continued, "Although the criminal statute of limitations expired 20 years after Melissa’s 18th birthday, the Fort Worth Police Department Major Case Unit continues to ask for the public’s assistance with any additional information concerning Melissa’s abduction that occurred over 51 years ago."
FOUND: MELISSA HIGHSMITH'S FAMILY ‘OVERJOYED’ AFTER BEING REUNITED WITH SISTER ABDUCTED IN 1971
The real Melissa Highsmith, left, beside a colorized photo illustration of what she was believed to look like now from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. (NCMEC/ Highsmith family Facebook page)
The Highsmith family previously told Fox News Digital that her resemblance to their mother is uncanny.
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"We had coffee with her on Thanksgiving night, and when I looked at her, I just knew. I knew," her brother, Jeff Highsmith, said in November, adding later that he "couldn't take" his eyes off her when they met because she looked "just like" his mother.
Missing Melissa Highsmith reunited with family. (Highsmith family Facebook page)
Melissa Highsmith was raised just 10 minutes from where she was abducted from her mother's Fort Worth, Texas, apartment on Aug. 23, 1971, when she was just 21 months old.
The case made news headlines in September when an anonymous tipster reported a potential Charleston, South Carolina, sighting of Highsmith.
While Highsmith was not in Charleston at the time of the sighting, it brought national attention to the case and motivation to Highsmith's siblings to find their long-lost sister.
The family of Melissa Highsmith held a memorial on her 53rd birthday outside the Bob Bolen Public Safety Complex in Fort Worth, Texas. Highsmith disappeared from Fort Worth on Aug. 23, 1971, when she was just 21 months old. Highsmith's sister Victoria Garner moves a sign of a non-profit she runs. (James Breeden for Fox News Digital)
Jeff and Melissa's mother, Alta, who was recently separated when she moved to Fort Worth and worked as a waitress in the 1970s, had placed an advertisement in the local newspaper for a babysitter to watch over Melissa — her firstborn — at the time.
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A woman responded to the ad and agreed to meet Alta at the restaurant where the young mother worked but never showed up.
The family of Melissa Highsmith provided this photo of her as a baby. Highsmith disappeared from Fort Worth, Texas, on Aug. 23, 1971, when she was just 21 months old. (Provided by family to Fox News Digital)
Later on, the prospective babysitter called Alta and expressed her interest in the job, saying she had a big yard and cared for other children.
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Alta hired the babysitter, who picked up the 21-month-old toddler when she was in the care of Alta's roommate while the young mother was waitressing, according to Jeff Highsmith.
Melissa Highsmith's mother poses next to a composite sketch of her daughter's suspected kidnapper in a Fort Worth Star Telegram newspaper article. (Jeff Highsmith)
The roommate told authorities that the woman who picked Melissa up was wearing white gloves, sunglasses and a bonnet around her head in the middle of August in Texas, Jeff explained.
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Highsmith had not been seen since her mother called law enforcement the day she disappeared in 1971. Jeff believes his sister was kidnapped, but for now, he is only focused on getting to know his sister.
The Highsmith family was "overjoyed with happiness" after finding Melissa and feeling more united than ever, Jeff said in November.
