JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The story of a Jacksonville girl kidnapped from her family debuted as a movie Saturday night.
Action News Jax reporter Meghan Moriarty spoke with Kamiyah Mobley’s family about their thoughts after seeing the movie for the first time.
Mobley’s father, Craig Aiken, said family members didn’t get to play a big role in how it was produced.
Aiken said neither he or Kamiyah’s mother Shanara Mobley were consulted when it came to this movie.
He believes their point of view was missing from the film and greatly needed to show the entire story from their perspective.
Kamiyah Mobley was kidnapped from a Jacksonville hospital in 1998 and then reunited with her parents in 2017 when she was 18.
Now, her story is being told in a Lifetime movie, “Stolen by My Mother: The Kamiyah Mobley Story”
“I don’t approve of the name or the angle that came with it,” Aiken said.
Aiken felt that the movie didn’t show the full story.
“The truth that I wanted people to see from beginning to end was also not of the kidnapper or the child that had been kidnapped but the struggle of the parents and the situation what they had to go through,” Aiken said.
Aiken said he was a little nervous to watch the film with his daughter, but he was also proud of her for sharing her story and decided to host a viewing party at Onyx Sports Bar on the Northside, “to share some of the experience that my daughter went through,” Aiken said.
Kamiyah Mobley didn’t want to share her feelings on the movie, but gathered with her family at a showing in Brentwood. It appeared she didn’t show a lot of emotion as she watched the movie.
Aiken said he applauds the movie itself, but wants people to keep in mind that it is just a film.
“This is not us. This is not our life. This is not coming from us. This is coming from Lifetime,” he said.
Gloria Williams was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2018 for the kidnapping of Kamiyah Mobley.
Aiken said that he doesn’t dislike the movie, but it just isn’t their story.
He said he and his daughter are catching up for the time they lost all those years and he looks forward to creating new memories with her.
SEE ORIGINAL COVERAGE FROM ACTION NEWS JAX ON THE 1998 SEARCH FOR KAMIYAH MOBLEY
-Video from 1998: Kamiyah Mobley’s mother says “I just want my baby back”
-Video from 1998: Sheriff Nat Glover canvasses community looking for tips on missing Kamiyah Mobley
-Video from 1998: Grandmother of Kamiyah Mobley, Jacksonville newborn taken just hours after birth
-Video from 1998: Police search for missing Jacksonville newborn Kamiyah Mobley