Custodial Grandfather moves
quickly................
A custodial
grandfather came to our office, desperate for help. He and his wife
have full custody of their 3-year-old grandson. (Their son and
daughter-in-law had been found to be unfit parents.) Their son had
kidnapped their grandson during a supervised visitation at the
grandparent’s house.
The grandfather tried
to run after his grandson but his son kicked him in the chest,
knocking him to the ground. The abductor then threw the child over a
chain-link fence as he jumped the fence himself. The grandfather was
trying to jump into the back of the pickup truck as it sped off.
The local police were
called and the grandfather answered their questions and gave them
photos. The next day he came to our office to fill out a report and
ask for our assistance on the case. Because of the child’s young age
and the arrest history of the father, our office felt that this child
was in immediate danger. The news media responded positively to our
plea. The story, with the grandfather being interviewed, the
grandchild's photo, and the abductors photo was aired on our local
nightly news.
Since the father was
well known to our local police department he was spotted and stopped.
The grandchild was safely returned to a very happy grandma and grandpa
within 24 hours of being abducted.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Abducted by the mother...
The weekend after
Memorial Day my daughter, of whom I shared joint custody, was abducted
by her mother. I had received a faxed note on Thursday that they would
be leaving New Mexico Friday to visit Disneyland. This was suspicious
since they had been to Southern California the first week of May. I
did not receive any calls from my daughter during the week as promised
in the note and Mom failed to return after the weeks vacation.
After some
difficulty, my former in-laws and I were able to get the local police
to list them as missing. A detective from a neighboring community was
able to find enough evidence that a state warrant was issued for
Custodial Interference and a Federal Warrant for Unlawful Flight to
Avoid Prosecution.
My former in-laws had
only had limited contact with my former wife and were as concerned as
I about my daughter's safety. There was evidence that several friends
had knowledge of the plan to take my daughter but they would not
assist in locating her.
I had listed my
daughter with several missing children's services before I found the
NMCLC site on the internet. NMCLC not only provided exposure for the
case through national media, they went a step further in getting the
case actively investigated by other area law enforcement. I had been
unable to get the case into the local media either by story or by
Crime Stoppers. NMCLC was able to get the regional television as a
Crime Stopper report. They limited my ex-wife in her ability to return
to the area where she had the most emotional and financial support.
My daughter was found
in Seattle the day before Thanksgiving. I believe that the active
involvement of NMCLC kept my ex-wife from being able to get the
financial support and emotional support that she needed to continue
the abduction.
Ultimately my ex-wife
was allowed to plea bargain to Attempted Custodial Interference with
two years supervised probation, psychological counseling, and she had
to submit a written confession to the Court. The plea bargain was
struck to prevent my daughter, who is now six years old, from having
to testify in court. If she fails to complete her program, she will be
tried for Custodial Interference and her own confession will be used
against her.
