This is Jeffrey Roberts with 2020. For more than four decades, 2020 has brought you an incredible variety of compelling stories. Well, now we're going to bring you back to some of the most heart stopping ones from the 2020 true crime vault. And we're going to give you updates on what happened to the people involved. Thanks for listening.

Coming up you.

Come on, baby. My name is Kim Mays, and I was switched at birth.

14 year old Kimberly Mays.

Kimberly Mays.

Kimberly Mays.

This is really one of the biggest mysteries I've ever covered. It was the Quintessential who done it. Two babies being swapped in the hospital. Kimberly was switched at birth in this north Florida hospital with another little girl, Arlena Twigg. My parents child was taken from them. The biggest question, of course, what to do about it.

Now, on the one side was a woman who thought her baby had been stolen from her.

I went into total shock. Just try struggling through all this know? Oh, my no, no.

And on the other side, there's the man who's raising her, who says he knows nothing about the original switch. You're out of your mind. I wouldn't care if they traced heritage to cabbage patch USA. I'm her father. I always have been and I always will be. There was this massive flood of media in the run up to the trial. Barbara Walters had the exclusive, the one everybody wanted.

I just can't imagine what it must be like to be told that maybe you were switched. Was it neglect? Or was it a deliberate attempt to switch the two children?

This was no accident. I asked her point blank on her deathbed, did you switch those babies? Her daughter said. Who made you?

And why? Why was I switched?

I'm John Quinones. Imagine being a nine year old girl and finding out that the only parent you had ever known and loved was not your biological father. And another family, one you didn't even know existed, wanted to be part of your life. For five long years, Kimberly May's story played out on television and in court. It was a showdown that seemed to end with her declaring her love for one family and rejecting the other. But was that the end of the story? In 2019, now 40 years old and herself a mother, kimberly Mays once again sat down in front of a camera. She told of the complicated story behind her public declarations of relationships that were not what they seemed. And she pondered the question of her mysterious birth. What really happened so long ago?

Having grown up in Florida, I knew a bit about Wachula. I knew this is a place where probably only a few thousand people lived in the whole county, and we're talking sort of backwoods Florida. This is a very rural country town.

There were two stoplights in the city of Wachula in 1978. Two of them. One of them was not far from the courthouse, and the other one was about a mile to the south. It's a small town. Neighbors trust each other. People don't lock their doors. It's a place where generations generations have lived in the same county.

Hardy Memorial was the only hospital in Wachula. 50 beds, six doctors, and one obstetrician. Dr. William Black. The week of November 20, 1978, two women came to Hardy Memorial to have their babies. One was Regina Twigg, and the other was Barbara Coker Mays. Barbara Coker. Grew up in Wachula. She grew up to marry Bob Mays. They were a beautiful couple. He was handsome and charming, and she was tall and lovely. They were the perfect Florida couple.

We had a nice place to live on a lake, a boat and skied. Just really enjoyed life. It was wonderful. Barbara and I knew we wanted to have a family. She just didn't get pregnant. We wanted to have a child very badly, and we just kept trying. And she came home one day and just had a real peculiar grin on her face and whispered in my ear, what do I think about being a dad? We were very jubilant. She was pregnant, and that looked like everything was going to come together for us. Approximately 3 hours into her labor, the fetal monitoring disclosed fetal distress. Fetal distress became severe enough that I feared for the baby's wife and ordered emergency cesarean section for delivery. I was unable to determine very much about the baby's condition due to the fact that the cesarean required my attention to the mother. And so this seemed to be a very hard delivery, and they were looking forward to bringing the new baby home.

They decided to call the baby Kimberly. About the same time. Dr. Black. Another patient. Regina Twigg. She also was about to have a baby. My parents were always bringing a baby home. Seems like mom was always pregnant, you know, with eight children, and she would sit us down. Hey, kids, guess what? The rumors at the time were that Barbara Mays, whose maiden name was Coker, the family the Cokers, were of some prominence or importance in town.

The Coker family has been in Hardy County for as long as I can remember.

Contrast that to the Twigs family, who were said to be quite poor. Ernest was employed by Amtrak and he worked at the station here. He was heavily involved in helping people get on and off the trains and making reservations and all that. Regina had a teaching degree, but with all the children, she didn't work that much. So Barbara Mays gives birth on November 29, and three days later, regina Twig goes into labor at midnight. Just around twelve midnight, the contraction started. And I told my husband, ernest, come on, Ernest, we need to get down there. I said, the baby's going to be coming. So we take off down the road to Wachula, which is a country setting I mean, it's like nothing is around except the animals that hide in the scrub brush. I'm saying. Oh, Earn. Hurry. Earn. But he says, Just be calm, dear. I can't go through the stop signs, dear. Now just breathe, dear. We drove around to where the emergency room was and they called Dr. Black right away. And meanwhile I'm saying, oh, you will give me some gas, won't you? You will give me some gas, won't you?

Because I was the biggest coward on this earth and people are astounded that I had that many children and that was that big of a coward. At my deliveries.

She had a spontaneous, easy delivery of what appeared at the time to be a perfectly healthy infant.

Oh, I had my heart set on a girl. We had lost a baby girl in 1975. She was our last little girl. Regina had lost a daughter, a baby girl, Vivia, to a heart defect at the age of six weeks. We were on the road and Vivia actually passed away. She was on the seat with me and I noticed that she was choking and her eyes were rolling in her head. My father took Vivia from me and did CPR on her. By the time we got to the hospital, all I remember is them running her in really quick. And I remember being in the back part of the car and my parents come out and let us know that she had passed away. So Regina Twig is in the hospital. She's a little bit nervous, hoping her next child is healthy. And when she's told initially that the child is healthy, she's very relieved. They decide to call the baby. Wow, I'm so happy it's a baby girl. We have a little girl again. Regina told me that when she was in the hospital she was walking down the know after having a baby, you get up and walk around on all.

So she was walking down the hall and she looked into the room. There was only one other patient in the whole maternity section and she saw that the mother seemed very sad and distressed. And she stopped and lingered and said, what did you have? And the woman said, A girl, but looked down and looked away. Then a nurse came along and hurried Regina away and said, this is a very sad story. When she came home, she told me about that. She wondered what was going on with the situation there. Regina had been breastfeeding her baby every 4 hours. And on the third day a nurse handed her a baby that just didn't seem like the same baby. She noticed that the baby didn't want a nurse and the baby looked kind of blue.

She said, I don't think this is my baby. This baby is darker in color. And the nurse said, no, Mrs. Twig, this is your baby. You're a little nervous about everything. And they said, look at the bands. On the baby I'm giving you. The baby had a band on the ankle and a band on the wrist that said Twig. So Regina was sort of pressured by the nurse to accept that, in fact, she was getting the right baby.

I just think when everybody around you is telling you you're just being a nervous new mother, what are you going to say? It sounds crazy. It does. And I never dreamed, not for a second on this earth, that they had given me somebody else's baby. And later I mentioned it to my husband, what I had said to her. And my husband said, you're crazy. You're absolutely crazy. This is crazy. Don't talk like that. It's stupid. That sounds like something that my dad would say. That's pretty much how our household ran, was. Hey, everything's okay. Let's not upset anybody here, because this is what they're telling you. The next day, a doctor who Regina didn't know, who was not her doctor, came in, said, I'm Dr. Palmer. We understand that you had a baby who died from heart disease. This baby has a heart problem too. And I just began to wail through the whole hospital floor. And Ernest, in his laid back way, oh, calm down, dear, calm down, you know? And he tried to comfort me, but my heart was it's like, oh, my God. Just like vivia. Just like vivia. Oh, God, no.

Oh, God, no. That kind of thing. The baby had a very severe heart condition, and they didn't expect the baby to live over a week. Regina left the hospital later that morning, along with Ernest and the sick baby. Mays left the hospital carrying the well baby. It would be almost ten years before anyone learned for sure the babies had been switched.

When that happened, hundred million dollars in damages.

All hell broke loose.

Two families had gone into Hardy Hospital and walked out with each other's babies, bob and Barbara Mays, who had one child, Kimberly. The other family was Regina and Ernest Twig. They had six children, including baby Arlena. They were discharged on the same day, but traveled very different paths.

When the Twigs were discharged from the hospital, the doctor in Wachula told them they needed to take Arlena to a specialty hospital that dealt in pediatric cardiac illnesses. Arlena only had one working valve out of four, and the doctors told Regina that if they had waited one more day, the baby would have been dead. She had pneumonia. They put her on antibiotics, and this saved her life. And she rallied. She was very, very spunky. Just a precious, precious baby girl. She had to give Arlena heart medicine three times a day. They actually said, whether this child lives or dies will depend on how carefully you monitor the condition and medicate her. She was very fragile. When you put your hand on Arlene's back, you couldn't feel her heart beating. It was very scary because we didn't know from one day to the next, are we going to lose her too?

Meanwhile, the Mays family is flourishing.

They had a beautiful baby and they were doing well.

We just had a wonderful time with Kim. We took her everywhere. We went and dressed her and showed her off and we're just as proud as we could be of her.

18 months after giving birth, barbara Mays was diagnosed with advanced stage four ovarian cancer, which was a death sentence. Soon after, Regina received a phone call. A woman said, Mrs. Twig, you may not remember me, but I had a baby at the same time you had a baby in Hardy Memorial Hospital. Regina called me and she said, I had a really strange phone call. This woman called me and she said we were in the hospital together. And she said, I was thinking, wouldn't it be nice if our babies could get together and play together? She said, that'd be fine. She gave her her address. She said, well, we'll try to get over there to see you. And I said, well, that's strange. Can't imagine somebody calling you and asking you that. Then Regina calls me sometime later and she said there was an OD car out front of our house. It was white, they had a little screen porch on the front of the house. And Arlena was out there in a little plague pen playing with some toys. And they were just sitting there watching the house. And she said she looked out a couple of times, they were still there.

Maybe this is the woman that called me. Maybe they'd like to come in. So she went out to talk to them and they drove away. This is not things she told me later. She called me and told me right after they happen.

Regina doesn't know it then, but that phone call years later will be the key to unlocking the mystery.

Barbara Mays died in March of 1981. Kimberly was just over two years old, and of course, so was Arlena.

She couldn't run and play like everybody else. If she over exerted herself, her fingertips would turn purple and her lips would turn purple because the heart wasn't strong enough to support the activity.

My mom would let her skate a little bit. She loved to skip, but that was about all that she could do. I remember mom telling her, you need to settle down, you need to calm down, you need to go sit down. I remember we had this large tree on the side of the house. It was huge and we all climbed it. She's like, I'm going to climb that tree. And I'm like, sweetheart, you can't climb that tree. And she turned around and looked at me, was like, but why not? And I said, well, you're special. She would cry and say, I don't want to be special. I want to be normal like everybody else.

All she wanted was to be normal. She begged, begged for that. That's all she ever begged for, was just let me be a normal little girl.

She started to gradually go downhill. Her heart was struggling. She was tired. Her lips seemed more purple. She was struggling with schoolwork because of the lack of oxygen. It was starting to affect her memory. She was nine years old and she was becoming weaker and weaker. The doctor had told us that after a certain point in time, they wouldn't operate. So we decided on surgery on her heart and we set the date. In preparation for the surgery, Arlena's blood was typed. They learned that Arlena had a B blood type. It is impossible for O type parents to have a natural B type child. I didn't know what to think. I just could not understand. Why is she a B positive when my husband's an O positive and I'm an O negative? The record said O positive on the baby we've given birth to.

What they've just found out has already rocked their world, but it is nothing compared to what they're going to learn with the genetics test. They took the genetics test at Johns Hopkins.

Dr Wilma Baez, the head geneticist at Johns Hopkins, told us of the results. She said, Mr and Mrs Twigg, I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but the test results have proven that Arlena is not linked genetically to either one of you. I went into total shock and my husband turned white. He almost passed out. And Mrs Wimblebias was going on and on about the results of the test and I'm trying to listen to her and I'm going back into this shock and just struggling through all this know, oh, my, no, no. A whole gamut of thoughts went through my head. She has to be mine. She has to be mine. In the hospital, on the little card on the bassinet, it said Baby Twig. All right. Where is Baby Twig? And then I had to accept it. We said that she would always be our daughter and that we would always love her and we will till we die. They knew they wanted to look for their long lost child. But for now, their focus had to be on Arlene, that she was facing a life or death operation. The Twigs had been completely shocked when they found out that Arlena was not their child.

But they were not going to burden Arlena with that. Arlena was getting ready for surgery, so we couldn't tell her. We felt like, well, we would relate everything. Once the surgery was over and she was doing well and we would work through it. Arlena would be undergoing a five and a half hour procedure. It was very high risk and there was a strong possibility that she wouldn't make it. The night before she went in for her surgery, I was optimistic, but I was also scared a little bit, but I didn't want that to show through. She and I, we slept on the pull out couch and talked and talked and talked and talked for hours. Arlena was very afraid of the surgery. She told me that she was afraid to die. And I said, you'll be fine. You will come out of this beautiful, healthy, be able to run and skip and jump and do everything that all the other children do. She got excited for that. The next morning, she went to the hospital. They took her into surgery, and Regina visited her right after. When she came out of surgery, she was so beautiful.

She was pink and looked healthy and normal. And I walked in the room and I was like, oh my gosh, look at you. You look so good. She just beamed. You could see it in her eyes and her smile that she was like, I did this. I'm okay. And unfortunately, tragically, later that night, she went into a seizure. Arlena's head began to move. Her eyes began to move. I stood there and watched her start to struggle. And I got a nurse and asked them to please help her. Nobody knew what was going on. She couldn't speak because she was intubated. And Arlena just looked over at me like, help me. What do I do? And I felt so helpless. The twigs were sent out of the room so they could work on Arlena. But then she went into a coma and they called them back. I remember watching the monitor, and the heart rate just dropped and dropped and dropped until she was gone. I felt like I had died with her. The surgery itself was a success, but because her kidneys failed, she just didn't make it. And I laid my head on her chest and told her I was sorry that I couldn't help her.

I stayed at my best friend's house. I remember my mom showed up and she just told me that she passed away. I couldn't believe it. She wasn't supposed to die. Everybody said she would be okay. As she went down that hallway, I wouldn't have say, no, stop. You know, I was so afraid we would lose her. But I couldn't because it had to be done. Because if she didn't have the surgery done, she would die anyway.

My older brother and I were out at Uncle Sam and Aunt Marges, and I was watching the TV program or something, and it came over me that she was gone. She was my best friend. She was my sidekick. I was the one pulling her around a little red wagon in the front yard after church on Sundays. We always did everything together.

You. I visited her grave a lot. I put flowers and I would buy the huge wreaths. And I went above and beyond because I wanted her to know that I was still there and that I loved her and missed her and that she was worth that. Big display of gorgeous flowers. She died on August 2313 years to the day from the day her baby sister died. They both died August 2313 years apart. My mom was very grief stricken. There was a void in her. The whole family was totally, totally devastated. And by this time, both Regina and Ernest knew that genetically, biologically, there was no link between them. But it didn't affect this intense, overwhelming love that they felt for her. Regina had been so passionate for so many years trying to save Arlena, and now all of that emotion, she was turning it to determination to find her missing child. I thought, where is Baby Twig? What happened to her? Where she was? Was she happy? We had to find the baby.

Regina and Ernest Twig have suffered a devastating loss. Their daughter Arlena, born with a heart defect, has died at just nine years old. Adding to their grief, the Twigs had recently discovered Arlena was not their biological child. Now they want answers.

The Twigs knew that the hospital had given them the wrong baby. But what happened to their baby? Nobody knew. Where was this baby? Why did this happen? They filed a suit against the hospital for negligence for $100 million.

The couple is asking $100 million in damages.

This was huge news in our region. It was one of the biggest stories we had when the story first came to light. Your response as a reporter is, this can't be true. You hear about a baby swapped in the hospital. It just sounds unbelievable. I think what they were hoping to do is this publicity could maybe help lead them to their missing child. What we want most to happen right now is to find our biological daughter. Before I knew very much about the case, I thought, maybe you can prove this isn't your child genetically. But it's going to be hard to find where the real baby is in the metropolitan section, or the Metro Florida, I think it's called. I look down and I see couple suing Wachula Hospital. Well, naturally, being from Wachula, I read it. They said, this little girl was born on November the 29th and one on the third, and they were switched at birth. I said, no way. And I shoved the paper across to my husband. I said, Kimberly, this little girl was born the 29th. He said, how do you know that? I said, Too many times have Barbara and Bob and other people told us they were the only three.

There were only three children in the hospital. It turned out the Twigs hired a private investigator that was able to find there was only one other white child born in that time period at that hospital. In fact, they knew exactly who it was.

One day, an investigator showed up on my doorstep. This is a man working for the Twigs attorney. He told me that the Twigs were present in his office, that he was calling to put me at rest, to let me know that they were just wanting to find where their child was and that she was happy and cared for and that was their main concern. I said, well, that's fine, but what does that have to do with me? He says, well, we can take a vial of blood to be analyzed by your toddlers. I said, you're out of your mind. It's not going to happen. He said, well, we'll get it. One way or the other, we will get it or we'll take you to court for it. And I said, well, you just said the magic words. I said, this conversation is over, and if you hear from me again, it will be from my attorney. I got a phone call in my office from a fellow that I knew kind of well. He was a salesman named Bob Mays. And when he showed up, he was completely shaken. And he says, I don't know if this is some kind of a prank.

I don't know what they're doing this for. But the last thing he imagined was that it was true. He could not imagine that Kimberly Mays was not actually his daughter. So the FBI came to him and said, will you take a lie detector test? And he said, I'll take any kind of a test. This is my baby. And so he took a lie detector test and he passed it with flying colors. Bob Mays'initial position is that he doesn't care who the biological parents are. He's her father. He raised her, and that's the way it is. I am her father. I wouldn't care if they traced her heritage to Cabbage Batch USA. I'm her father. I always have been and I always will be. At this point, the Twigs haven't made any kind of move for custody, but the specter of seeking custody looms over all the proceedings. Any chance in your mind that this might not be your natural daughter? I don't believe that at all, Charlie. No, you don't? Then why not go ahead with the test? I just don't feel like why? Why should I?

So the Twigs filed a petition in Sarasota Circuit Court asking that genetic testing be required to determine whether Kimberly Mays was their daughter.

The Twigs want to have a genetics test, not because they want custody, but because they want to get to know Kimberly. They want to have a relationship with her. The way you would lose this case is incrementally. And so first they come in and they want a blood typing, and then they want DNA. And so, as each thing goes, you are slowly allowing this camel to get its nose under your tent. And pretty soon the whole camel is in the tent. You're on the outside. The only way to win that is at the beginning. And so you've got to put up a wall, you've got to protect that wall, you've got to stop that first step. While at its heart this case is very emotional about a child, it is completely surrounded by legal maneuverings. For months, the Florida courts have consistently ruled that biological parents are entitled to custody of their own offspring. The two lawyers were a total study. In contrast, I mean, you had the Twigs lawyer, John Blakely, who believed in the power of the law. Very sober, kind of soft spoken.

John was a really good choice for them. John was very professional, very smooth, very intelligent.

When I saw that John had showed up, this has taken a different turn. Now. I knew I wasn't going to be able to bark him down or run him off or lecture him about the nuances of Florida law. I decided I needed to get somebody who knew more about family law and custody than I did. Bob Mays hired an attorney in Sarasota. Art Ginsburg was a divorce lawyer in that town. I'll tell you where I'm going, to a men's room. You all want to go in here with me?

Art Ginsburg, he was personality, and his personality was known to everybody in the legal community.

I'm normally very friendly. I'd say hi. Demay's lawyer argued that even getting Kimberly tested would make her suffer. The legal team hired several psychologists, as I recall, who voiced the opinion that it would not be in Kimberly's best interest to do the testing.

The one expert that I interviewed said it was really important not to diminish and not to weaken the bond between Kimberly Mays and her father. Bob, there are six very significant experts that say this will destabilize this child, and yet here we still were. Here we still were.

Mr. Mays, I gather that you finally had to sit down with Kimberly and explain this whole thing to her. What did you say? How did she take it? She only really showed a great deal of concern at one point in the presentation, and that was when she began to become aware that I was maybe indicating that she might be someone else's little girl and that she may have to leave me. He was able to present himself as a sympathetic figure because he would just say, oh, I love Kimberly. This is the only family she's ever had. Why should anybody snatch her away from this and take her to a family that she knows nothing about?

So I do remember for the Twigs them sort of being villainized in some stories, she was cruel. And how could they be wanting to get this child back, even if it was theirs that had been raised by somebody else, and that if they really cared about their biological child, they would let her go in her best interests?

The only priority here is Kimberly, and this thing has just got to come to an end. Bob Mays wanted Regina to give up. But if you knew how Regina had been raised as a child. You would know that she was the last person who was going to stop. She's really not going to go away, probably ever. Regina and Ernest Twig have taken Bob Mays to court, asking for genetic testing to determine whether Kimberly Mays is their biological daughter. So far, Mays has resisted, and both he and Regina Twig have taken to television to plead their cases. But for Regina, at least, this story may run deeper than meets the eye. Mrs. Twig, why did you decide to pursue this? As bad a mistake as may have been made, why did you decide to pursue it and run the risk of disrupting another family?

Irregardless of the fact that she was raised with someone else, she still has roots with us and she is part of our family.

Regina was unwavering in her attempts to connect with Kimberly, and there were people around her who wondered why she just didn't let it go. Yes, she was a mother, but there was something more than that. When stories about the swap were in the headlines, there would be a sentence or two about Regina's background. But they only touched on what her childhood had been like. If you talk to her today, the story of her childhood is as mind boggling as the one about the swap.

Regina grew up in a town by the river in Ohio, and she was poor.

My name is John David Carr, Jr. I'm Regina twig's brother. There was four of us, two older sisters, Regina and myself.

My mother used to sing to us, and she loved us very much. She was a good, good mother. What happened to her, she did not deserve. Homer Gibbons was my biological dad, and he was a chronic alcoholic.

My father was a big brute. Six six, 8300, 350 pounds. He was a heavy drinker. And my mother was very small and skinny, and he just abused her.

He didn't want the responsibility of us, so he accused my mother of being mentally ill, and he just dragged off to a mental institution. And she was not mentally ill. I just remember us sitting in the backseat and they took her out of the car, screaming and crying for her children. That is forever etched in my memory. Regina and her siblings were placed in a children's home. I remember laying in a crib like bed, looking up at the ceiling. It was very lonely. It was just like we were kind of just there.

It was a brick building. I remember looking out the window at the river, wondering what was out on the other side.

When you looked out the window of the children's home, you could see the barges on the Ohio River. And I would sing my Heart Longs for you because I missed my mother. My heart longs for you cries for you, sighs for you the people in charge in the orphanage were mostly teenagers themselves. So the children were left pretty much on their own and had to kind of supervise themselves. The girls that watched us wanted to fondle the little kids, and another little girl told me, look out for them. If they come around, you start to scream. So that's what I did, and they left me alone.

We had one that was just absolutely the meanest thing that ever walked the face of the earth. If you peed your bed, she would take and stick your head in the toilet and flush it. And we had a closet, so if you got out of line, they would stick you in that closet and leave you. Today they would be all charged with child abuse.

In the orphanage, the boys and the girls were kept separate, but they would see each other at playtime and they would run to the edge of the fence and touch each other through the links of the fence.

Regina and I used to talk through the fence together, and that was our time together. She was feisty and she didn't let any other kids pick on me. As long as she was there, I felt safe. So if I told her what was happening, she would make a stink about her.

After a few years, a little sister, a half sibling of Regina's, came to live at the orphanage. Regina watched her siblings disappear as they were taken off for adoption, and her biological family became smaller and smaller. At one point, Regina watched as her younger sister was being taken. A man held one of her hands and a woman held the other hand, and they walked away toward a car. I was nine years old when I was adopted by Reginald and Vivian Burge.

All of a sudden one day she's not there. Well, what happened to her? Well, she's been adopted and that's kind of hard. I didn't have anybody anymore.

They changed my name from Mary Lee to Regina Iris. My adopted mother said to me about my biological family, oh, just forget them, she says. They're not a part of your life anymore and they never will be. When Regina was twelve, her father came up from behind and began to molest her. I was saying, Daddy, Daddy, let me go. And the adoptive mother heard me saying that and she came in and let him have it between his eyeballs about that just wasn't going to happen. I was in middle school and they put me in the gifted class. That was not easy for me because I had a hard time with math. So I would come home every six weeks with my report card, and I would have a D on my report card in math. So my adopted mother would have my adopted dad take me down to the cellar. I had to remove my clothes, except my bra, my panties, and I got beat with a belt from my waist down to my back of my legs. As soon as Regina graduated from college. She left home and started an independent life. I moved to Akron, Ohio, and got an apartment, and I wanted to find my brother, and I was able to secure his phone number.

He only lived 5 miles away from me. I was just walking 10ft off the ground. Regina was contacted by her twin sisters. They had also found her mother, and they had taken her mother out of the mental institution. We hugged each other and she understood that my name had been changed to Regina. But I told her, I said, I'll always be your Mary Lee. I'll always be your little Mary Lee mom.

It was good that I could reconnect with people that I had shared my early childhood with. I still have a relationship with my sisters.

When I was 26 years old, I married Ernest Lee Twig. We've met and ended up getting married three months later. Having lost my brothers and sisters, having lost my mother, I feel like when I met my husband, he was my knight in shining armor, and this was my happiness. And so I have lived for my family. This is my reason for living.

She was determined that she was going to be the best mom she could be. And when she was going through this business with the vine and her child and all those battles, that's what gave her backbone and spine, was her background there at that orphanage and having to stand up for ourselves.

Regina wasn't going to be stopped. Bob Mays wasn't going to be stopped either. So now what? We didn't know where this would go. There had been no other case like this. It was almost like the perfect storm. The Twigs are convinced that it was you who caused the switch. Do you have anything to say about that?

We could not get enough of this May's story when I was at Kika magazine. It's the kind of story everyone has a feeling or an opinion about. It's really about. Is there a way to sort of fix this tragedy that occurred in this hospital 40 years ago?

The Twigs say, whether intentionally or by accident, someone at Hardy Memorial Hospital in Wachula, Florida, switched their healthy infant for a sick one. I just felt like this kind of thing just can't happen and we just can't let this go. We asked for genetic testing so that under the law, we could prove that this was our daughter.

You're out of your mind. It's not going to happen. The May's position is that getting a genetics test would hurt Kimberly psychologically. Kimberly is damaged here. Kimberly will probably suffer this for the rest of her life in some manner, shape or form. The public assumed from day one that this was a custody fight and that the Twigs were trying to get custody of Kimberly, but they weren't. Bob Mays, however, underlined the idea that the Twigs were trying to break up his family.

There was a PR war going on with each side understandably their lawyers seeking the public sympathy and the sympathy of the press.

Our relationship is not like many father daughter relationships. We had a lot of turmoil in our life. But the one consistency through it all was that when the smoke cleared and the tragedy was over, kim and I were still together. He had lost the first love of his life. He falls in love again, it ends in a divorce. What he had left was his daughter. And his daughter was his world.

Bob was a great guy. Bob was funny. Bob was smart. He loved children, and he loved Kimberly.

The only thing I'm worried about right now is my daughter. Bob was a salesman. He had the good looks of a salesman and he had the quick wit of a salesman. And everybody loved him. She is truly the one who's got to be considered.

Henceforth, when I heard him talk, I felt sorry for him. I liked him, and I felt for him. It was just he and chem against the world. But there was another side to Robert Mays. I think I first became aware of the other dimension when I was able to convince his second wife, Cindy Tanner Mays, to speak with me for my book. Cindy worked at the hospital where Barbara was getting treatment for her ovarian cancer. And that's how Bob Mays and Cindy met. She would look after Kimberly while Barbara was getting radiation treatment. So while Barbara Mays was dying of cancer, she made the decision that she wanted to leave Robert Mays. And she filed for divorce just five weeks before her death. And shortly after that, Cindy moved into the apartment. Then Bob told Kimberly that Cindy was her mother.

Kimberly was only around two years old at the time, and she was so young that she lost her memory of Barbara.

Kimberly called Cindy mommy, and Kimberly believed that Cindy was her real and only mother.

And it came out that Bob Mays had denied Barbara Mays'parents from even having any visitation with Kimberly for four years. They even had to get a court to order Bob Mays to allow them to see their own granddaughter.

But that meant that these grandparents who Kimberly didn't know existed, had to be explained somehow that Cindy was her mommy now, but that when she was a baby, she had had a different biological mother who had died.

Then when Bob divorced Cynthia Tanner, he would not allow her to see Kimberly anymore. So while publicly Bob Mays is seen as being the perfect dad behind closed doors, there are some shocking allegations which are raised by his second wife, Cindy, that he is an abusive father.

The Twigs attorney was taking depositions for the suit against the hospital when we deposed Cindy. It was very stunning to find out that Bob Mays was as abusive as he was to Kimberly. He thought the way to correct a child was to spank a child. Not just a pat, but very strong with a lot of his strength. His temper just exploded and the next thing I know, Kimberly liked sailed across the room. He even whipped her with a book and there was bruises left on her bottom. He would berate her, he would call her stupid, he would call her lazy. After Bob Mays and Cindy got a divorce, bob took Kimberly away from the mother that she knew and very soon thereafter started dating another woman who's now his third wife. From day one it was just like we just clicked and we had been together for a year when we found out about the switch, there was a standoff over the genetics testing for more than a year. The Twigs were really anxious to meet her. I mean, a year is a long time, especially in the life of a child. Robert Mays, who raised her, agreed to the genetic testing, but the Twigs had to promise not to seek custody.

They do have the right to visit her.

We will agree that we will not seek custody if you give us visitation and let us see the medical records and get the testing done so we find out exactly who Kimberly is.

Genetic tests prove that Kimberly Mays is really the daughter of Ernest and Regina Twig.

It wasn't until today that the Twig's seven children knew they had another living sibling.

John called us from California and told us she's a Twig. I said, oh my know. And Iris is standing there and she's jumping up and down and squealing. She's our sister, she's my sister. The Twigs finally think life is going to get better. Now we're going to be able to have access to the child. Little did they know this is really just the beginning of a new and terrible chapter for them.

More than a year after filing a lawsuit against Bob Mays, regina and Ernest Twig have finally gotten the answer they were longing for. Kimberly Mays is indeed their biological child. Now they're about to take the next step. Bob Mays had finally agreed to visitation, which is a big deal for the Twigs. They've known about Kimberly for two years and now they're finally going to meet her at a miniature golf course.

There's this picnic table and there's all the children sitting around the picnic table. This little girl in a green T shirt was looking up at us as we were walking and it just seemed like slow motion on TV, just 1ft ahead of the other kind of thing. And my eyes are glued to this little girl. As we approached the table she came around and she was very proper and sweet and she said how do you do? And for an instant I thought maybe she almost had the inclination to hug me. So I reached out my arms and I says, can I have a great big hug? And she says, yes, you can have a great big hug. And she gives me this hug, and I was at a total loss for words because it was like, duh. And I said been a long time. And she said, all my life. In fact, we went and played a game of golf with her, and she picked up a golf ball and she said, Here, Mom. And she handed me the golf ball, and the children just were, like, in shock. And the iris says, mom, did you hear her?

Mom, did you hear her? She called you mom. I didn't want to confuse her. And so I said, Honey, I know you have a new stepmom, and if you feel more comfortable, if it would be all right, you can call us Mom and dad. Twig that's all right with us. Initially, the visits were going great. They were going to different places. They were all getting along. Hi, Loretta. Regina and I were in touch very frequently, and she would talk to me about how the visits went. Hi. We went to the bowling alley. Hi. Who are you? Fine. We laughed at silly things. We just clicked. This is little Kimberly. We're a lot alike. So I believe it was just easy to have so much fun together, even though I was so many years older than her. I'm your sister. I know you are. And I'm her. Yep. If you think about Kimberly during those visits, it's quite possible that this was a great relief to her. If you recall that for years now, she was being kicked, beaten, told she was stupid, punished. Then just think, suddenly she was in a place with someone who she understood to be the true mother, surrounded by siblings who were interested in her, who looked like her, a big family, rather than just her.

Alone with Robert Mays, you can see why she'd be dancing joyfully. There was no one to stop her. There was no one to punish her. There was no one to call her names or abuse her. My turn. She could tell me anything. I could talk to her easily. She talked a lot about she didn't know what to say when she would go back home, because she didn't know what would trigger him, what would get him upset. I think what happened was that the visits were going so well that Robert Mays was sensing a difference in Kimberly's attitude at home. I want to be probably a doctor. I had a 6th sense that something was going to happen. We just weren't going to be allowed to see her anymore. I said, Kim, it may work out where you won't be allowed to see us anymore, but we just want you to know that we love you and we will never, never give up on you. All right, look over here. And she said, I love you too. And sure enough, that was the last time that they were together.

After a half a dozen or so visits, kim began to show some negative things. Grades begin to fall, attitude in class. All sorts of things are happening, and I called to cancel a visit.

What it seems to be is that he was starting to feel that he was losing control of the situation, that Kimberly was drawn to the new family, that Kimberly was not as obedient, and she felt she had another place to go.

We knew then that we were dealing with a bad faith character here, and that he never intended to let us continue with the visitations. And there's no reason to talk to him anymore about it, because he's not going to change. So that's when we went back to court. So they just filed another motion with the court that they want every other weekend, every other holiday, six weeks in the summer, all of Kimberly's time that they could have well, this was ridiculous. I mean, they were total strangers. And until we could get this under control in some way, why, it was my opinion that we shouldn't have any visitation at all. The Twigs and the Maze don't agree on much, but they do agree on the idea that the hospital was at fault. Both sued the hospital where their children were switched at birth, and both families received settlements in excess of $6 million. Even though we'd settled the case against the hospital, we shouldn't be here today. Certainly, if she could establish a loving relationship with them, why deny it? The next time Regina sees Kimberly, it's going to be in court. And in a very dramatic turn of events, it's going to be Kimberly who's suing the Twigs.

Today, a teenage girl has begun the painful process of trying to divorce her biological parents.

She wants to pursue a divorce from her natural parents.

The news that Kimberly Mays was suing to divorce her biological parents was a huge story. Wall to wall coverage. Any chance of reconciliation is pretty hopeless. Kimberly will probably suffer this for the rest of her life. The Twigs have become increasingly convinced that Bob and Barbara Mays were in on the swap.

It is a child custody saga that's been played out in the media.

Tonight on Turning Point switched at birth. Kimberly's story in the run up to the trial. Barbara Walters had interviews with everybody involved in the trial, including the exclusive, the one everybody wanted the interview with. Kimberly.

So nervous, you just look at me and forget the cameras, and we'll take our time. Done.

Tape rolling in there.

All right. Kimberly, your dad thinks you're a very remarkable young woman, and you have been through an awful lot. Just kind of take each day. Yeah. Just say to myself, thank the Lord that you got him at least, daddy me? Yeah, dad. What's he like? He's really fun. He's loving, caring. The tests prove that this child you had raised was not yours, but was the child of another family.

Correct.

How'd you feel?

Empty. Totally wiped out. What did you I still can't talk about it's just drained me completely.

You had to tell Kimberly.

Oh, yes. And she began to cry, and I began to cry. Just trying to reassure her that it didn't mean anything and that she was my child.

The Twigs are convinced that it was you who caused the switch.

Well, they're wrong.

I just can't imagine what it must be like to be nine years old and to be told that maybe you were switched.

The decision to put Kimberly on TV is an interesting one. To have the child at the center of this controversy talking to Barbara Walters and expressing her desires is going to be the most effective tool. Bob Mays is going to have to win this case.

Can you take me back to that time and tell me what it was like for you? It was terrifying. I mean, I was like, just shocked. I was like, what? And Dad's like, yeah, these people are saying that you're their little girl. And I was like, Daddy, don't let them take me away. Don't let them take me away. But if you were having a nice time with your biological brothers and sisters, and if the Twigs were nice to you, why didn't you just say, oh, well, I'll continue to meet them? Well, they were saying stuff like saying really bad things about my mom that well, Miss Twigg ms. Twigg said that my deceased mother, Barbara, is the one that switched us babies. So you got angry because your parents were being attacked? Yes. When did you decide you want to terminate all the rights and that you just didn't want to do this anymore? I saw Gregory Kay on the news today.

A twelve year old boy has gone to court seeking a divorce from his natural parents. And Gregory. You're the son of Mr. And Mrs. Russ.

At this moment, I was like, well, if this little kid could do it, I could do it. I would have loved from the very beginning to have just shared a relationship. Our family would have been friends with Robert Mays if he would have allowed it. Why do you think the visits were ended? Robert Mays had no intentions of ever, ever allowing us any part of Kimberly's life.

All right, this court of the twelveTH.

Judicial Circuit, everything we had learned about this case was all coming to a head here in this courtroom. And all eyes were going to be on Kimberly.

Your Honor, we're going to call Kimberly Maze. Okay, let's get started. Kimberly, would you state your full name and your age for the record, please?

Kimberly. Michelle mays. I'm 14 and a half years old.

Who are your parents, Kimberly?

Robert Mays and Darlene Mays.

Kimberly, have you ever told Mrs. Twig that you love her?

Yes, sir.

Can you indicate to the court how that came about?

When we left, I said I love you. I say I love you to everybody I know.

When Regina was called to testify, she was trying to be as in control as possible. Mrs. Twig, did you attend all of the visitations with your daughter Kimberly?

Yes, I did.

Tell us what you remember about the first visit.

Kimberly picked up a golf ball and handed it to me and said, Here Mom. And I was in total shock.

Did you ask her to call you mom?

I did not.

Kimberly's lawyers put a psychologist on the stand to testify that Regina was unfit as a mother. There tended to be paranoid like features to her psychological adjustment. And I found that she did not trust others easily. Do you love Regina Twigg?

No, sir, I do not.

Do you love Ernest Twigg?

No, sir, I do not.

Do you love the Twig children?

No, sir, I do not.

Kimberly, what is your greatest fear?

Being taken away from my father.

If you could be granted one wish that would make you happier than anything else in the world, what would that wish be?

Terminating their parental rights and getting my life back.

Thank you. No other questions.

What if the judge decides that it is not in Kimberly's best interest to have visitation rights? The courts tell us to walk away someday down the road. If she ever wants to see us again and she wants to be a part of us, all she has to do is come to the door because we're here and we love her. Kimberly, what if the court decides that you should have visitation rights with Mr and? I'd want an appeal. You don't want to see them under any circumstances, right? None whatsoever.

The judge ruled today in the case of Kimberly Mays. The judge granted Kimberly's request severing all contact with the Twig. Kimberly Mays has won her case. She never has to see her biological parents again.

Do you think there might ever be a time in your life when you're older when you would want to see Mr. And Mrs. Twig or the brothers and sisters? No, ma'am. As far as you're concerned, it is finished. Over. Yes, ma'am. Think you'll ever get over it? No. Never. I think we all expected that Kimberly would go back to her life the way it was before, quietly with her father. But then, in a surprise move, just a few months later, she moved in with the Twigs.

Kimberly Mays.

Kimberly Mays.

Kimberly Mays is suing her biological parents for divorce.

It was like a three ring circus. The judge is expected to rule on whether the court will consider the divorce motion. I wanted the courtroom stuff to stop. The Twigs have vowed to take their case to the US. Supreme Court, the media to stop. But just I wanted everything to stop. My name is Kim Mays and I was switched at birth as a child. You don't realize the impact of everything. I wish I can turn back the hands of time on a lot of things. Did Kimberly seek out this idea for divorce proceedings or did you help her with it?

She came to, I believe, first my wife, Darlena, and then came to me. And my first reaction to Kim was that I think you had really better think about this. We had heard for many, many months that Kim wanted to divorce her biological parents.

At the time, it was very much portrayed that this was all Kimberly's idea. At the time, the lawyer that was dealing with our case was like, well, you know, there is a kid, his name's Gregory Kay. He's divorcing his biological mother. That's an option for you to divorce the Twigs. And I was like, oh, okay. Sure.

I said, you must understand, you don't just divorce Ernest and Regina, you divorce the entire family. She told me right then that first city, daddy, they're all part of it.

I wanted to know about them. I wanted to know about the Twigs. I wanted to know what my biological family was like. I made a mistake. I regret divorcing the Twigs. At this point in Kimberly's life, it was she, her father and Darlena, and they were viewed as this small, tight knit family unit. What about Darlena? Do you feel close to? She's like, well, she is a mother to me. She treats know like a best, best friend, and she treats me like a daughter. And I love her very much and I don't know what I'd do without her. Darlena and I didn't get along too well. There were moments where we got along at times, but for the most part we always butted heads. Well, I love Darlena very much, and even though we have our rough spots, I still love her very much. At the moment that I said that, it's like survival mode had I said, no, she's not that great of a mom. We don't get along, then the courts are going to be like, why? Is that what's going on?

In a high profile custody case, a child is under tremendous pressure to say what the adults want them to say.

Do you think your daddy has a bad temper? Oh, no. Was he abusive to you? Oh, no, never abusive. He had a very short fuse. I would bring home an F and he'd whip me with the belt, or he'd take an Encyclopedia Britannica and he'd whip me with the thick book. Kimberly did say that you had whipped her once with a belt. Do you remember doing that?

I remember an instance, I think, when my hand was injured and I used a belt rather than to whip with my hand. If it was, it was one time, one occasion that I would have done that, and it was a spanking. I don't even look at it as a whipping.

Miss Twigg said that my father beat. Me that. He called me names. And none of that's true. He never beat me. He never called me names. He said, oh, hi, pumpkin pie. He called me pumpkin pie, kimbo Kimberlina and stuff like that. But not stupid or idiot or dumb. He never called me that. So my father would call me stupid, he would call me an idiot, he would call me dumb, made me feel low. That was my father figured. I looked up to him as a child, looking through my eyes. I thought that was normal. He could have treated me different and loved me a little different. I think we all expected that Kimberly would go back to her life the way it was before. But then, in a surprise move, just a few months later, she moved in with the Twigs. After spending several days in a shelter for troubled teens, kimberly has moved in with her biological parents. I stayed there year and a half to two years almost. I think Regina tried hard for there to be some kind of a connection with Kim, but I think Kim resisted that. I was never close with Regina.

I felt that she was smothering and overbearing. I don't really feel like I've had a mother growing up. That's where the confusion comes from. But I do know she has a good heart. She's been through a lot. I really wasn't prepared for like, life. I was 17 when I left. I was two weeks before my 18th birthday, had a kid and I married. I was young. I didn't know how to mother. Kimberly lost custody, divorced, went on to have five more children. It was reported in the tabloids that she was stripping to support her growing family. Bob Mays died in 2012. He was 65. And she's estranged from the entire family. She doesn't talk to anyone.

Kimberly has had a lot of challenges in her life. She has been through one trauma after another. And you just can't help but think, who would she have been if she had not gotten switched?

I wish I had my life back. I don't have a normal one. It's the past and it's made me who I am today. But how did I get switched? And why? Why was I switched? I want to know what happened. I will go to my grave. Convinced it was not an accident, I.

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Ieberly.

Mays. A 14 year old girl who was mysteriously switched at birth with another infant. The parent maternity ward baby mix up.

In Florida by accident. Someone at hardy Memorial Hospital in Wachula, Florida, switched their healthy infant for a sick one. It was characterized as this could have been an accident. The Twigs attorney says, Kimberly, we didn't have any idea. I will go to my grave convinced it was not an accident. You have two babies. You have a wrist bracelet and an ankle bracelet on each child.

The bands are supposed to be put on tight enough so they won't slip off. And, I mean, the odds of both bands coming off at the same time and somehow being put on the other child by mistake is incredulous. No, this was not something that happened by chance. It was not something that happened by accident. This had to have been intentional. Otherwise it would not have happened.

The switch almost certainly happened the morning of December 4. According to hospital records, the nurse who shows up for the overnight shift on December 3 is actually told to go home. And then the nurse who replaces her happens to be a friend of Barbara Mays's mother. The hospital records show that Regina got her baby at 05:00 A.m., and the baby nursed normally. But then at 730 in the morning, the nurse weighed both babies. And based on the medical records, it shows that the Twig baby had lost five and a half ounces overnight. A lot of weight for a small baby.

All of a sudden, the Twig child had the weight of the Maze child and vice versa.

So now Regina is nursing the baby at 09:00 A.m., and she notices that the baby is not nursing as well and looks different. The baby doesn't seem able to nurse, and the medical records show that. So we can conclude between 05:00 A.m. And 07:30 A.m., somebody swapped those babies. When the baby's weights were reversed, the babies were switched. Question was always, who did order this? Who oversaw it? And who actually accomplished the switch? The next day is December 5, and both the maize and the Twigs were due to be discharged. So on December 5, the day she was scheduled to go home, a new doctor examines Regina's baby and discovers her baby has a heart murmur. So the new doctor orders three tests. One of those three tests was a blood gas test, which would have typed the blood and made it perfectly clear this baby was not Regina's baby. But then another doctor, and Dr. Palmer canceled one of those tests. Dr. Palmer canceled the one test that would have revealed this was not their biological baby.

I became chief of staff at Hardy Mora Hospital, I think it was in 1989. Given the status of Dr. Palmer at that time, he was the chief of this hospital for many, many years. He has a fiercely loyal group of followers. Think that he'd be the one who could do this and be able to make the whole thing work. Dr. Palmer was intimately involved with some of the family down there. It's a very close knit community.

That was definitely a rumor that somehow the doctors in town or the doctor would have wanted to favor or been connected to somebody who wanted to favor Barbara Mays. I think they just felt sorry for Barbara and Robert Mays because they had wanted a baby for ten years. She finally gets pregnant, she has this baby. I think they just felt so sorry for the family. They all knew that this child wasn't expected to live, but they had no way to fix it. Along comes Regina Twigg. She doesn't live in the community. Nobody has any special feeling for her. And she gives birth to a beautiful, healthy, normal baby girl.

And the family had a lot of kids and this was just another to the litter. And so there was that element of here's a family that has plenty and here's a family that is struggling just to have one and maybe we can help them. They gave Regina this child because they never expected it to live. And she had already lost one to the same sort of thing and nobody would ever know the difference. The question is, why wouldn't Barbara have noticed that they brought her the wrong baby too?

She nursed or fed the baby every 4 hours for four days. It would be more plausible that a day later. But five days later you don't know what your child looks like. Suddenly your blue baby's healthy. So your contention is that Barbara Mays knew these babies were switched? Yes, ma'am. There was a call, a phone call to my house one day. When we started talking about switching and going back to some of the conversations that we shared, then we started putting two and two together. The fact that this woman had called and wanted to meet with her gave me some indication that she knew that her baby had been switched. And then realizing that this car was Barbara Mays. A dying woman suddenly wanting to have a play date with a woman that she doesn't know and hasn't heard a word about in two years. If nothing else told us that she knew, that would be proof enough. She wanted to see her biological child before she died. And in her own way she wanted to say goodbye.

It may have stayed a mystery forever, but then a nurse's aide comes forward and she says she knows for sure how the babies got swapped. My mother was Patsy Webb. She was a nurse's aide to the babies. And she knew about the baby swap. When this all came about, about the early ninety s. I was a young attorney at the time. I'm still a young attorney, but I was a little bit younger at the time. I had just opened my practice. Just a simple country office brick building on Main Street. That's where I met Patsy. Patsy Webb was in her wheelchair. She was hooked up to the oxygen she needed her daughter to help her get around. And Patsy told her story. She told me that somebody had approached her about swapping the babies, and she said, no, I'm not going to do that, but if it's done, I won't say anything about it. And it's my honest belief that this is the first time that her daughter had heard that. Because when Patsy told me this story, her daughter just it was, how can you do this, mom? This is what she said. Who made you God?

How could you be a part of this?

Well, when Carl Pansler first talked to me, he said that he had this client and that she had a big story to tell. I had just become a correspondent at CBS News in New York. I remember editing the piece and, like, rushing to get it on the evening news that night.

She was literally on her deathbed. As you can see pretty much in the video, she was gasping for breath.

Dr. Palmer asked me to switch the bands on the baby and mother.

Her doctors had told her she had very little time to live and she wanted to make sure that before she met God, she had settled things here on Earth so that she could go with a clear conscience. She said they swapped identity bands. That's how, actually the whole thing happened. They swapped the bands themselves. I asked her point blank once, Patsy, did you switch those babies? And she said no. But she was concerned that if she did not go along with their plan, that she would be terminated and she would lose her health insurance. And she needed that health insurance for a family member. Yeah, she felt guilty. It bothered her every minute of the day. She had this planned out to tell the truth. After the story broke, the hospital wanted to push back and they said, well, Patsy wasn't the best employee. She's a little, know, out there, a little bit eccentric, a little bit this or that. My mother knew exactly what happened. There was no confusion.

My judgment of her as a journalist was that she was telling the truth and felt like it was something she really just wanted to clear from her conscience before she died.

She never asked for money. She wasn't seeking any type of notoriety. Didn't want it, really did not want it. But she wanted to just tell her story quietly and go off, move on into the sunset.

I think Patsy Webb's story probably didn't get more traction in the news because she didn't do other interviews. So there was Patsy Webb's story, as incredible as it was, that kind of hung out there for a day or two and then floated away. There are questions that pull at your heart, such as, who would Kimberly have been if she were never switched before the swap happened? Ernest and I were a typical family. We had a good marriage for a long time there. It's more or less my loving dad. I didn't really want the divorce, but as things worked out and it was necessary, when somebody loses one child, a lot of times the divorce will happen. We had lost two. It's really hard. We still live with that pain. We still live with the loss. We still grieve to this very day. This story comes to the very heart of the whole question of what makes a family, what makes a parent? Is it the emotional relationship and the bonds somebody has with a child that may not even be genetically related? Or is it the genetic tie between a mother and a child? That can't be disputed.

There are questions that pull at your heart, such as who would Kimberly have been if she were never switched? It's just so sad to me, and it could have been so different. While I'm not perfect at all and I regret a lot of stuff, I can't dwell in the past. I have to move forward. I would say to Kim that I hope life will be positive for her and good for her. I will always love her in spite of the pain of what happened in the past. Like it is said, you put 1ft ahead of the other and just carry on. My mother has that strength in her that's like no other woman that I've ever, ever met. When I was a little girl, I remember mom writing songs. She was always singing. Tonight, she's going to be performing one of her songs that she wrote. It's called Precious Child. It's in memory of my two precious little ones that I lost the pain. She wants the world to understand her more through her music, and I hope she gets that. That would mean a lot to her. Precious Child. I love you. This is Deborah Roberts as of 2023.

Kimberly and her biological mom Regina say they've been in touch but never fully repaired their relationship. The two women say they speak occasionally, but they're not close. That's it for this edition of the 2020 True Crime Vault. Tune in Friday nights at 09:00 for all new broadcast episodes of 2020 on ABC. Thanks for listening.