TOGETHER AGAIN: Carl Tyson and Joy White reunited with their long-missing daughter, Carlina White Tyson, last week. (Tamara Beckwith)
Fake mom Ann Pettway couldn’t take the heat.
The 49-year-old fugitive — suspected in the kidnapping of Carlina White from Harlem Hospital 23 years ago — finally turned herself in to authorities in Stratford, Conn., yesterday.
“The FBI notified us shortly after 1:30 p.m. that Pettway turned herself in, and she’s now in the custody of the FBI. It is our understanding she was alone when she [surrendered],” said Bridgeport Detective Keith Bryant.
Pettway used Facebook to inform officials that she wanted to give up, sources told CNN.
At some point, she also placed a call to authorities from a relative’s house in Stratford, sources told The Post.
Once in custody, Pettway was immediately arrested on the kidnapping rap. She was set to be held overnight in Connecticut before heading to federal court in Manhattan today, said Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara.
White’s biological father, Carl Tyson, was elated at the news of Pettway’s surrender — but still at a loss to understand how anyone could snatch a newborn from her real parents.
“I would just love to speak to her, to see her and talk to her and ask her, ‘Why?’ That’s all I want,” he told People magazine.
Carlina was allegedly snatched by Pettway at Harlem Hospital in 1987, after her mom, Joy White, had taken her there because of a high fever.
Pettway then allegedly secretly raised Carlina as Nejdra Nance, living first in Bridgeport and later in Georgia and North Carolina.
But the charade fell apart as White got older and grew suspicious that Pettway was not her real mother.
Those suspicions were confirmed last week, when DNA tests proved that Carlina’s biological parents were White, a Bronx resident, and Tyson, of Queens. The couple separated years ago.
Pettway had been on the lam since then, disappearing from her Raleigh, NC, home.
North Carolina authorities issued a warrant for her arrest for violating terms of her probation on an unrelated conviction.
The FBI is handling the kidnapping case instead of New York state authorities because the state’s statute of limitations on the charge has run out. Federal charges stand if the victim was under 18 and remains alive.
The NYPD said it is remaining involved.
“Our missing-persons detective will work with the FBI,” spokesman Paul Browne said yesterday.
Pettway had fled to her hometown of Bridgeport to dodge authorities because she has many relatives there, authorities said.
Her fatal misstep appeared to be when she went to Joe Davis Pawnbroker in town on Saturday and offered to hawk a Dell laptop, hoop earrings and an engagement ring, sources said.
An employee called the cops, but Pettway narrowly escaped as the cops closed in.