In the age of social media, posting pictures of our children is common. They are our pride and joy, and we want to show them off to our friends and family like everyone else!
But one mother named April was hit with a wake-up call after she decided to post pictures of her twins online.
April gave birth to her daughters Sophia and Vivienne in 2012. After their birth, like many other mothers, she was seeking struggling with two babies and seeking support.
April joined a Facebook group for mothers of multiples.
She was aware how dangerous the internet could be, so she used an alias in an attempt to protect her identity— but she did post photos of her girls online, explaining, “I was proud of them.”
The new mom enjoyed being a part of the group, and everything went well up until her girls hit one year old.
At this time, April received a message from a woman she had never met: “This may be a long shot, I am not for sure, I came across a blog on the internet…”
When April clicked the attached link, she was shocked by what she saw.
She tells Neosho Daily News, “I clicked on that blog and that is when I saw that all of my twins’ photos, like all of their delivery room photos, the photos after they were born, everything was on the blog website.”
April tells The Dr. Phil Show, “She basically took my photos offline and made up a complete lie of her as their mom and has a story to go along every single picture of my girls.”
“I started bawling. That’s when I realized my daughters had been digitally kidnapped”.
April couldn’t believe that the blogger, Ashley, had essentially “stolen” her children—but the mother worked hard and was successfully able to get the blog shut down.
Afterwards, April assumed the debacle was behind them— but Ashley continued to stalk the family in secret for 4 whole years, now using Facebook to post the photos and still claiming the twins as her own.
April’s husband tells The Dr. Phil Show, “Police told us there’s nothing really they can do because there’s no crime in stealing a photograph.”
After contacting the police, April called a private investigator who added Ashley as a friend and searched the woman’s profile for evidence of the girls.
There were the usual pictures of the girls alongside false stories Ashley had made up- but something caught the investigators eye.
In the background of Ashley’s pictures, the investigator noticed framed photos— ALL featuring April’s daughters, Sophia and Vivienne!
She even had a room set up with cribs!
April and her husband eventually contacted Dr. Phil to help them confront the woman. A clip of their episode can be seen below.
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