Abbie Humphries, snatched from UK hospital as a baby, dies of brain tumour age 30 in NZ

A woman who was snatched from an English hospital ward when she was a baby by a woman posing as a nurse, but who later shifted to New Zealand, has died of a brain tumour aged 30.

Abbie Humphries was taken from her cot at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham in July 1994 when she was just three hours old, The Sun reported.

She had walked into Karen Humphries’ room and taken Abbie from her father Roger’s arms, saying the baby had to have a hearing test, the AFP reported.

Police found her just over a fortnight later in the Nottingham suburb of Wollaton – not far from the hospital.

They had been tipped off that a former dental nurse called Julie Kelley, 22 at the time, who had been pregnant and was expecting a boy, came home with a girl, Daily Mail Australia reported.

Kelley pleaded guilty to abducting Abbie Humphries and was put on probation for three years and treated for a severe personality disorder.

The story made headlines and was prominent in media coverage in the UK.

British media was described at one point by the AFP as “engaged in a feeding frenzy” over Baby Abbie’s kidnapping.

Kelley apologised to Abbie’s parents at a hearing through her lawyer, AFP reported.

Following the incident, the Humphries family moved to New Zealand for a new life, according to the Daily Mail. Eventually, Abbie Humphries married Karl Sundgren in October 2017.

On Facebook Sundgren posted: “Our beautiful Abbie peacefully passed away yesterday, surrounded by loved ones. She fought so hard with so much strength and grace for over 4 years and can finally rest.

“Abbie was so strong, and her infectious smile will forever remain in our hearts,” he said.

Abbie’s mother died from breast cancer in 2020 and at the end of November that year Abbie posted on her Facebook page that she had been getting migraines and headaches “and put it all down to stress of losing mum at the end of September”.

She went on to say that she had tests and a CT scan “showed a large 5cm mass/tumour on my left side of my brain” and that she “went into surgery to remove the tumour within 24 hours”.

Unable to work and facing further treatment, a Give-a-Little page was set up for Abbie in June 2021 which said her surgery had removed a glioblastoma tumour and it was followed up with 30 rounds of surgery and daily chemotherapy.