Federal investigators joined local law enforcement in an effort to track down and prosecute Ann Pettway, who is suspected in the 1987 abduction of Carlina Renae White, according to a law enforcement source.

If arrested, Pettway would be prosecuted at the federal level, the source said.

White's mother said she never gave up hope that she would be reunited with her daughter, who had been missing for 23 years.

"I just always believed that she would find me," Joy White told the New York Post this week after seeing her 23-year-old daughter for the first time since she was just 19 days old.