Sitting on the sofa to watch TV one night in her New Zealand home, Abbie Sundgren was transfixed by a drama about the kidnap of a newborn baby.
Within seconds of the programme starting, the 25-year-old realised that the plot was the story of the first 17 days of her own life. Not surprisingly, she binge-watched all six episodes.
Today, Abbie works in the beauty industry in Auckland. But back in 1994, her story – one of the most audacious kidnappings in British history – had the country on tenterhooks.
Anguish: Karen Humphries with newborn Abbie. For 17 days, her parents Karen and Roger Humphries, did not know if their daughter was alive or dead
Princess Diana even sent a goodwill message to her distraught family as they waited for news.
Day after day there were headlines about the hunt for ‘Baby Abbie’, the little girl stolen from Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre three and a half hours after her birth.
For 17 days, her parents Karen and Roger Humphries, did not know if their daughter was alive or dead. All they had was a brief memory and a photo of mum’s first cuddle, taken by the proud father.
Eventually, Abbie was returned to them and the story unfolded about how she had been snatched by a disturbed 22-year-old who had faked a pregnancy to save a failing relationship.
Laura Carmichael as the baby-snatcher in the drama the story inspired. The actress, best know as Lady Edith in Downton Abbey, has won plaudits for the role
Dressed as a nurse in a pale blue uniform, Julie Kelley took newborn Abbie from her father, telling him the child needed a hearing test.
Abbie’s mother had briefly left the maternity ward to make a phone call and by the time she returned, Abbie was gone.
Speaking to The Mail on Sunday about the TV series which is about to be screened on BBC, Abbie reveals that, rather than being traumatised by reliving this confrontation with her past, she loved the screen version of her kidnapping.
‘As I am sure you can imagine, this does bring up a lot of emotions for my family,’ she said.
The Humphries, who have an older son and younger daughter, wanted a fresh start and emigrated to New Zealand when Abbie was ten. They bought a rural five-acre plot from where Roger set up his own plumbing business and midwife Karen continued her career.
They never hid from Abbie what had happened to her but nor did they let it define her.
Previously, Abbie has said: ‘My parents told me all about it as I grew up, but not all in one go. It came out in bits and pieces. It was after we moved to New Zealand when I realised how big it all was.
‘We were unpacking all the boxes and I saw the press cuttings.’
As a youngster, Abbie became a swimming champion, dreamed of becoming a detective and grew up enjoying the freedom of New Zealand’s beach culture.
In 2017, she married her long-time boyfriend Karloss Sundgren in a vineyard ceremony.
Speaking a decade ago, her mother Karen said she sometimes tried to forget the name of her daughter’s kidnapper because she was determined the woman would not be part of the family’s life forever.
‘I’d had those first three hours with Abbie, cuddling her and feeding her,’ she recalled. ‘The bonding had begun. It was a terrible wrench to lose her so quickly, but I knew I had to be strong and believe that I would get her back.’
However, with the new TV drama, called The Secrets She Keeps, on primetime TV across the world, it seems clear they cannot escape Kelley completely. The series is based on the 2017 novel of the same name by crime writer Michael Robotham who, at the time of Abbie’s kidnapping, was an executive on The Mail on Sunday.
Moving on: Abbie at her 2017 wedding to Karloss in New Zealand
As Abbie points out, it is a very contemporary re-working based in Australia, in which the woman whose baby is stolen is a blogger whose ‘perfect’ online life makes her the target of a supermarket worker played by Laura Carmichael.
The actress, best know as Lady Edith in Downton Abbey, has won plaudits for the role.
In real life, Karen Humphries was targeted at random by Kelley, a former dental nurse, although her motivation for the kidnap was identical. She took Abbie to her boyfriend’s family home in the Nottingham suburb of Wollaton where she had moved after announcing her ‘pregnancy’.
Neighbours became suspicious of the new arrival because Kelley had specifically said she was having a boy.
Police visited the house three times during the hunt for Abbie but left without finding her. On a final raid, she was identified, rescued and reunited with her parents at the hospital from which she had been snatched.
Kelley was found to have a severe personality disorder and put on probation for three years. She was able to forge a new life in the Midlands and had a family of her own.
The Secrets She Keeps starts on BBC1 on Monday, July 6 at 9pm.