Update on Kim
Found this update- 2004. Such a shame.
http://tinyurl.com/jkhaz
How awful. Hopefully in the past 2 years, Kimberly has gotten the help she needed. She's going on 28 years old - this whole ordeal essentially ruined the early part of her life. What's even worse is that 2 children's lives have been hurt because of it, too. It's those kids that everyone should be concerned about now...
shareI could not get the link.What did it say please???
cb
The World of Kimberly Mays
The search for Kimberly Mays-Twigg took Action News to the streets of Orlando on the strip where businesses employ women who strut their stuff and men pay to see it. A trail of disappointed friends and relatives made clear that the 25-year-old is traveling a path of self-destruction.
Regina Twigg/Kimberly's birth mother: "She's reacting with anger that she lets drive her because of the pain of not being allowed to be who she was born to be."
Sixteen years ago, the Twigg family of Langhorne, Bucks County learned that their 8th child, Arlena, who was dying of a heart ailment, was not biologically theirs. She was born to another couple, and switched with the Twiggs healthy child at a Florida hospital in November 1978. The Twiggs sought to reconnect with Kimberly.
Regina Twigg/Kimberly's birth mother: "All we wanted was to know a relationship with a child that we never told anyone to take from us."
The then 9-year-old Kimberly Mays was being raised by Robert Mays whose wife died from cancer when Kimberly was 2 years old. The Twiggs went to court to gain visitation rights. But the court allowed Kimberly to divorce them–although later at age 15 she ran from Mays to the Twiggs. The court then ordered shared custody. Emotional problems surfaced immediately.
Regina Twigg/Kimberly's birth mother: "She would bang her head against the refrigerator. She would claw her face. She would scratch herself."
At 18 she married 19-year-old Jeremy Weeks. They had a baby boy named Devin. But the couple split and authorities took the boy from Kimberly alleging problems with her parenting skills. Devin was given to Jeremy's parents. A few years later, Kimberly was pregnant again and living in a shelter, when she met some Jehova's Witnesses ministering on the street.
Obed Santiago/Kimberly's friend: "Out of concern for her coming to have the baby very soon, we offered her a place to stay."
Obed & Kelly Santiago took Kim in, purchased a crib and baby supplies. Early on, the Santiagos suspected Kim was abusing little Jazmyne.
Obed Santiago/Kimberly's friend: "We confronted her about that and we were having concerns she could be shaking her."
Kim learned authorities had examined Jazmyne, and left with the baby. She surfaced in October of 2003, when arrested for alleged prostitution.
Cpl. Carlos Torrez/Orange Co. Sheriff's Dept.: "The witness tells us that she offered to perform a sex act on him for $125."
The case was dropped. But a few weeks later, Kim reportedly called a friend's family from California.
Kimberly told the Yost family she was kidnapped by her pimp and left the baby with an exotic dancer friend in Florida. The Yosts invited Kim and the baby to live with them if she would get her life together. But while there, the Yosts suspected abuse and illegal activity.
When confronted, Kimberly left and reportedly began working the strip again.
Melissa Yost/Kimberly's friend: "If she (Jazmyne) stays with Kim, that she's going to die."
Kimberly's friends and relatives say she sometimes blamed the way she lives her life on being switched at birth, on alleged abuse that occurred before the switch was discovered and on her biological family's reentry into her life.
Twigg wrote a song that wonders if Kim's pain and path lead to a dark and lonely end.
Denise James Channel 6 Action News.
She seems like a spoiled brat. I remember the story from when it happened - it was interesting to me because my son is around her age. From all accounts, she had a good upbringing up till the time she decided to go live with the Twiggs. I think she's just using the switched at birth thing as an excuse for bad behaviour.
shareI don't think she can be blamed completely for what happened to her life. To be told when you are nine that your father isn't your father and the strangers are trying to get custody of you must be terrifying. Then the Twiggs' dragged it through court right through Kimberley's childhood. It would have confused and frightened her and that must have had a deep impact on her mind.
"I always pretend to root for Gryffindors but, secretly, I love my Slytherin boys."~ Karen, W&G
Nope. I don't buy that. there are lots of adopted children who learn that their parents aren't their biological parents and they're no worse off then anyone else. I think Kim is being spoiled and using the switch as a crutch. What she gained from the switch was two families that wanted to lavish her with love and a support system. There wasn't a custody fight that ripped her back and fourth. The Twiggs just wanted the right to visit with her and get to know her. She was never at any time a risk of being snatched from her dad. Even in the film about this story she was portrayed as a spoiled whiny little brat.
Not taking proper care of your children and abusing them is no one's fault but the person who does it. If she's shaking her child or mistreating it in any way. There's noone to blame but herself. Bob Mays has nothing to do with it and the Twiggs had nothing to do with it. I wish people would own up to what they are responsible for more in this world instead of trying to always put the blame off on something or someone else.
Has anyone ever just hauled off and hit you?
But most adoptive kids don't have the burden of worrying they will be taken from their homes (the custody battle went right through until she was eighteen), of whether their father loves them as much know he knows this is not his natural child, of media instrusion and an interefering other family at an age that is hard enough without dealing with all these concerns. Yes, she does nee to give herself a good shake and let go of her childhood pain but it is what has affected her to this day.
"I always pretend to root for Gryffindors but, secretly, I love my Slytherin boys."~ Karen, W&G
The movie Switched a birth re-aired on tv today and it prompted me to go online and see what and how she was doing. I read a case about her in 1999 about how she lost her son. I was surprised to read a timeline of her going back and forth between the different families (completely her choice). Most of all the details of why, she's the way she turned out to be isn't something we can blame on being spoiled. I think she should have continued to see a therapist when she was a child to deal with her problems as they occured. I think that after the whole case was settled and she was able to divorce her biological parents her guardian father must have assumed everything would go back to the way it was which clearly wasn't the case.
I saw a picture of her looking flustered and messed up. I felt really sorry for her. I think for her to turn to becoming a street walker she must have some deep rooted issues that haven't been released to the media. She admitted her claims of being sexually abused by Mr. Mays was a lie. However, there is a chance that she was sexually abused by someone being her choice of becoming a hooker in all. Most street walkers were sexually abused at one point in their lives or another.
This is a situation where we can't blame the parents for fighting over what they each called their daughter. Should the Twigg family have just decided hey, we don't know how our daughter is but we shouldn't pursue any means to see her because it might cause her to become a hooker later? :( If your child were out there in the world you would want to know him or her. Have a chance to see if they were okay, and to let them know you cared about them. I think what the Twiggs did was right but, after she decided not to see them anymore they should have walked away from her it was obvious she would be back!
Its not a case of a spoiled "bad" girl. It's a case of a girl who was abused by circumstances. I feel really sorry for her. When I re-watched the movie I hoped to find good things about her online. I didn't believe what I was reading the chain of street walking arrest, child abuse charges, and failed marriage. I wanted to hear that she became a Dr, or turned her life around at some point.
The good thing about life is that as long as you are alive you still have a chance to fix things. You still have a chance to turn your life around and find a new path. Let's hope that Kimberly Mays can do the same thing instead of calling her names like I have read on here!
Geez....
[deleted]
i cant believe that people would call Kimberly Mays a spolied brat. Paris Hilton is a spolied brat, Kimberly Mays is troubled.
I cant imagine having my life turned upside down like that. Her mother dies when she was 2, her father raises her on his own, then boom - she's in the spotlight over a "switched at birth" mix up. She gets teased by kids at school, constantly worries that she will be taken from the only parent, grandparents and life she has ever known. she finally does meet the Twiggs and their kids and it turns out that they are nice people. Now she probably wrestled with guilt over not hating the Twiggs and being loyal to her father. This whole situation was a mess. That girl should have been in therapy for years. Adolescence is hard enough without having a bomb like this dropped on you. Your identity becomes confusing - you're constantly discovering new things about yourself, new feelings, a changing body, dating, etc... then to top it all off - you have a strange (unfamiliar) family fighting for custody of you.
The Twiggs have a big role in this. They should have never even thought of filing for custody - its one thing to want to see your biological child, its another to rip a family apart.
Should the Twigg family have just decided hey, we don't know how our daughter is but we shouldn't pursue any means to see her because it might cause her to become a hooker later?
The Twiggs should have said that the ball was in Kimberley's court as to how much or how little contact she wanted with them. Trying to take a child from all that they know just because they wanted their kid back was selfish and immature. They put their own needs before that of Kimberley's (and their other children, who were probably shunted to the side as they wasted time and money on applying for full custody).
"I always pretend to root for Gryffindors but, secretly, I love my Slytherin boys."~ Karen, W&G share