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KANSAS CITY — The woman who abducted a newborn from a Kansas City-area hospital 10 years ago is now a happily married mother of two who is "doing great" after rebuilding her life, her parents said.
Amanda Tull was 19 when she and her boyfriend, Buddy Hall, abducted newborn Carlie Shockey from the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., on Jan. 28, 1998.
The couple was arrested at Tull's parents' home in High Ridge, south of St. Louis, the next day, and the baby was returned safely to her mother, Trish Shockey.
Tull pleaded guilty to kidnapping and was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison. Hall was sentenced to two years and three months in prison for being an accessory.
The case was in the news again last week when Carlie's mother took her now 10-year-old daughter to thank the FBI agents who helped bring her home.
In response to news reports of that meeting, Tull's mother and stepfather called The Associated Press on Friday to say that she has had turned her life around since being released from prison, after serving most of her sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Conn.
Terry and Ruth Faulkner said they aren't trying to excuse what Tull did, but they want people to know that she is a good person.
"What she did was wrong, 100 percent wrong," Terry Faulkner said in a telephone interview. "But she did serve her time and now she's doing great. She really got her act together."
After being released from prison, Tull lived in a halfway home, then lived with the Faulkners and worked at a restaurant. Eventually, she married and moved to Louisiana, where she is raising two children while working and attending school.
The Faulkners would not say exactly where their daughter lives or provide her married name or phone number.
They said they wanted Trish Shockey to know they did everything they could to ensure her baby was returned safely.
On the day of the kidnapping, the Faulkners said they knew something was wrong when Tull called them to say she had a baby. Their surprise turned to astonishment when they heard news reports of the kidnapping and recognized their daughter in videotapes released to the media.
They said they called the FBI immediately and reported that the couple and the baby were on their way to High Ridge, knowing that Tull would be arrested when she arrived.
When the couple arrived, Tull was "a little surprised" to find the agents there, Ruth Faulkner said, but admitted to her mother that she had been wrong to take the baby.
"(Shockey) should know that it wasn't just the FBI agents who got her child back to her," Ruth Faulkner said. "I did everything I could do to get her baby back, even if it meant putting my baby away."
Shockey said Monday that she was aware that Terry Faulkner had called the FBI and she was grateful to the couple. She declined to comment further.
Ruth Faulkner said Tull and her two other children had a rough childhood before she married Terry Faulkner when Tull was a teenager. But she said she did her best to raise her children with Christian morals.
"I raised them to do the right thing. But I told them that if they did do something wrong to call me and we'll deal with it," she said. "I told them not to run, just come home. And that's what she did."
The Faulkners blame Hall for orchestrating the kidnapping, which they said was completely out of character for Tull. They said they don't know or care what happened to Hall after he was released from prison.
Tull has told her parents she doesn't know what prompted her to sneak into Shockey's room at the hospital and take Carlie. Ruth Faulkner said she believes her daughter had a miscarriage shortly before the kidnapping and desperately wanted a baby.
But the family has moved on.
"We talk about the grandkids now," she said. "We talk about things that are happening today, not 10 years ago. She's climbed that hurdle and served her time. Right now, she's a good mom and I couldn't ask for a better daughter."
