As a parent, I can’t imagine having a child die at birth or any other time in their life. It has to be one of the hardest things anyone would ever have to go through. But to go through that, then learn your child didn’t die, but was sold has to be something different all together.

This is what happened to Zella Jackson Price and unfortunately, she might not be alone in this nightmare. Other black parents may have been given the same false death information about their children by the hospital as they were sold as well.

In 1965, Zella Jackson Price was 26 years old and gave birth to her daughter at Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis. After the birth, she was told her daughter die, but never saw the body or the birth certificate.

At this point, no one is certain who is to blame for the mix up or deception, but almost 50 years later Melanie Gilmore is still alive and the daughter of Price. She lives in Eugene, Oregon now and was always told by her foster parents that her mother had given her up at birth.

From TheGrio:

Price’s attorney, Albert Watkins, is asking city and state officials to investigate. In a letter to Gov. Jay Nixon and St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, Watkins said he suspects the hospital coordinated a scheme “to steal newborns of color for marketing in private adoption transactions.” In a letter to Watkins, the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services called the allegations “troubling” and said it would like to help him track down relevant documents it might have, such as birth or death certificates.

The reuniting of Price and Gilmore happened because of Gilmore’s children. For their mother’s 50th birthday, they decided to track down her birth mother and did so.

In March, Gilmore was informed her mother had been found. In April, the two were reunited and a DNA test proved they were mother and daughter.

After the story broke, Watkins started getting phone calls from other mothers, 17 more, who have the same story as Price and are wondering if their babies deaths were falsified and them sold on the black market.

This is an unbelievable story and hopefully the rest of these parents are able to get to the bottom of their mysteries. And hopefully, whomever is responsible for these tragedies are arrested and made to pay.

SOUND OFF: Can you believe someone would lie to a birth mother, steal and sell their children?

Source: TheGrio