USA: Texas Community Struggles With Death Of Kidnapped Teen Shavon Randle

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Although African Americans make up just 13 percent of the U.S. population, we account for 37 percent of the missing in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s database under the age of 18 and 26 percent above the age of 18. Cases involving African Americans also tend to receive less media coverage than missing Whites, with missing men of color getting even less attention.

NewsOne has partnered with the Black and Missing Foundation to focus on the crisis of missing African Americans.

To be a part of the solution, NewsOne will profile missing persons and provide tips about how to keep your loved ones safe and what to do if someone goes missing.

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The family of Shavon Le’Feye Randle, the Dallas teen who was kidnapped and murdered as part of a feud over 22 pounds of stolen marijuana that she had nothing to do with, wants the violence to stop.

“She lost her life over nothing, over pettiness,” Marshaun Burnett, 11, a resident said at a televised community forum.

Shavon was last see alive on June 28 in front of her home in Lancanster, Texas. According to Lancaster Police, one of Shavon’s family members received a call from a man saying that the teen was being held against her will. The unknown caller also threatened to harm Shavon, the Dallas Morning News reports.

Police identified four persons of interest in the case but Shavon was found shot to death from multiple gunshot wounds to the head and body on July 2, four days after police issued an Amber Alert. Michael Titus, 19, one of the original persons of interest, was also found dead in the same abandoned home in Oak Cliff, a Dallas neighborhood.

Desmond Jones, 21, who led police to Shavon and Titus’ corpses and who also allegedly told police he was there when Shavon was kidnapped and Titus was killed, is facing charges of felony aggravated kidnapping for ransom or reward and failing to report a crime, the Dallas Morning News reports.

The paper also reports that Devontae Owens and Laquon Wilkerson are facing aggravated kidnapping charges for plotting and participating in Shavon’s kidnapping. Darius Fields is being held on a federal weapons charge. Kendall Perkins, accused of stealing the marijuana that led to Shavon’s kidnapping, is being held on aggravated robbery charges. Laporshya Polley, from whom the marijuana was allegedly stolen, is being held on drug possession and evidence tampering charges.

A total of six people connected with the case have been arrested on aggravated robbery, kidnapping and drug charges but no one has yet been charged with Shavon’s and Titus’ murders.

But Lancaster Police Chief Samuel Urbanski told Fox 4 charges could soon be filed in the death.

“In this instance we want to be with accuracy not speed,” Urbanski said. “The majority of the investigation is complete, its the filling that we’re looking at again. We want to make sure that we’re accurate in our filing.”

Lancaster’s officers were hit hard with grief while investigating the case.

“I took it personally. My daughter turns 13 next week,” Urbanski told the television news outlet. “I attended the funeral of Shavon, I felt like I knew Shavon. Everything her family said, I personally took it to heart and I will never forget.”

Natalie Wilson, co-founder of the Black and Missing Foundation, called Shavon’s death one of the most “senseless” she has seen while helping families of the missing.

“It’s such a bizarre case. We don’t see many cases like this,” Black and Missing Foundation co-founder Natalie Wilson told NewsOne. “We see parental abductions and young girls and boys being abducted for sex trafficking, but abduction to pay a drug debt is highly unusual.”

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“It’s such a bizarre case. We don’t see many cases like this,” Wilson told NewsOne. “We see parental abductions and young girls and boys being abducted for sex trafficking, but abduction to pay a drug debt is highly unusual.”

She added, “They kidnapped a murdered a child who had nothing to do with that situation. We are deeply saddened by the murder of Shavon. We hope that those involved are punished to the fullest extent of the law.”

If you have any questions or concerns regarding an abducted child please feel free to contact us 24 / 7.  We are always available at contact@abpworld.com or by calling our offices – +1 (805) CHILD-11 (+18052445311)

Christmas holiday is the high season for International Parental Child Abduction.

December 1 , 2013 repost

ABP World Group Ltd.

Every year, during or after the Christmas holiday, ABP World Group are contacted by frantic parents who have had their child or children abducted while on holiday. ABP World Group provides advice on what to do if your children are abducted.

Very often there is a parent who has had children with someone of foreign origin and has allowed a holiday trip to that parent’s homeland. But it also happens that parents abduct the children when on holiday abroad as visitation sabotage.

Sometimes the abduction happens as quick as a lightning bolt and when the other parent returns home, the house is empty. All these forms are defined as international child abduction, and have a maximum penalty up to 3 years in prison.

Many parents ask us for advice on how to prevent one parent from taking the child abroad on holiday. However, this is very difficult to prevent when the courts in many countries often do not take parental concerns seriously.

Child abductors are not penalized in their homeland, since The Hague Convention on International Child Abduction is only a vehicle for the return of children and does not deal with punishment.

As few as 3 out of 10 children abducted return.

What should you do if your child is abducted?

• If you have evidence that the child has been abducted or held back after vacation, immediately contact a lawyer who has expertise in international child abduction.

•You can also get guidance by contacting ABP World Group.
•You must report the situation to both the police and the Ministry of Justice. (Ministry responsible for any claim for return under the Hague Convention).
•Time is of utmost importance, so you must work fast and focused. It is best if the police have initiated a quick inquiry before the abductor can leave the country with the child/children.
•It is also important to act quickly in terms of The Hague Convention.

Which parent abducts children?

Sociopath is an American term which is very close to what we define as antisocial personality disorder. These parents lack conscience, guilt and remorse, they are aggressive and have little respect for the norms, laws and regulations.

The U.S. study emphasizes sociopaths or antisocial personality disorder, but also parents with narcissistic, paranoid and borderline personality disorder are high risk for child abduction and visitation sabotage.

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Parental Child Abduction – More Than a Legal Issue

November 25 , 2014

Source: digitaljournal.com 

Kidnapping of any form is driven by a strong ulterior motive. But it takes more complex overtones when the victims are children, and the perpetrators are their own parents.

The number of parental child abduction cases has more than doubled over the last decade. And almost 80% of the abductors are non-custodial parents.

While this might place the blame squarely on the non-custodial parents, the situation on the ground is much more complex. Divorces and legal separations take a heavy emotional toll on both the parents. The children invariably face collateral emotional trauma that could affect them for years.

There are three distinct possibilities to any parental abduction. One is the possibility of being wrongly accused for a kidnapping. Second, the parent might have acted in the interest and wellbeing of the child. In other words, the act of abduction itself might have been to safeguard the child from physical or emotional harm. And finally, wrongful, illegal abduction, in violation of the rights of the parent’s rights of custody and access to the child.

In all three cases, it is important to consider and choose from a wide range of legal recourses, both before and after the incident.

For example, parents caught in a difficult custodial dispute could first file a complaint for divorce, followed by an injunction saying that the child cannot be removed from the state. While this is not something that one cannot circumvent, it is definitely a good start.

Even in the absence of such an injunction, parents could consider the Hague Convention, an international agreement that came together for the sole purpose of addressing the problem of parental abductions.

In a relevant portion, the Convention provides for the return of a child who has been wrongfully removed by a parent from his or her country of habitual residence against the other parent’s custodial rights. The child is to be returned to his or her home country until a final determination is made with regard to the child’s custody and visitation.

But in addition to legal recourse, a deeper understanding of the issue must arise among the parents involved and the society as a whole. While the parents are bound to undergo emotional stress, it is the children on whom it will tell the most. They not only have to deal with the stress of the parents’ separation, but also with feelings of insecurity, fright and the Stockholm syndrome that is bound to impact their impressionable psyche.

Which is why one needs an attorney who is not just adept at the legal proceedings, but exhibits genuine empathy for the client. Attorney at law Shana J. Black is an ideal example of a lawyer who aggressively represents the interests of the client without underplaying the emotional ramifications. It is due to this unique work ethic that she has had phenomenal success in bringing back children to the rightful parent.

About Shana J. Black
Attorney Shana J. Black is a San Diego based lawyer who has championed numerous cases for the underdog. Her legal repertoire is extensive and her client base is varied.

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Parental Kidnapping – Slovakian woman gets probation in child abduction case

October 21 , 2014

Source: abc7.com

Parental Kidnapping

A mother accused of keeping her two young sons from their fathers has escaped jail time. Maria Pfeifer was the subject of an international manhunt for violating custody orders and failing to return from vacation in Europe. 

On Monday, Pfeifer, a former Los Angeles resident, was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay restitution.

“The safety of the two sons that are at issue in this case was my primary concern,” prosecutor Deanne Castorena said.

Prosecutors says Pfeifer plead guilty to one felony count of custody deprivation. The sentence imposed Monday allows for Pfeifer, who is nine months pregnant, to travel out of the country.

“I think her departing the country will be the best thing all around for both the adult victims and the minor children involved in this case,” Castorena said.

Pfeifer’s attorneys say their client was pleased with Monday’s sentencing.

“For us, for the defense team, the big result was she’s not serving a day in jail on this case,” defense attorney Dmitry Gorin said.

In 2012, Pfeifer, 32, was allowed to take the boys on a 10-day trip to her native Slovakia and the Czech Republic, but never came back. She was arrested in France last December after violating custody orders that she return with her sons.

She was accused of disguising her sons, then 4 and 10 years old, by trying to pass them off as girls.

Back in Los Angeles, the boys’ fathers teamed up to find their sons, and eventually reunited. Both boys are now with their fathers in Southern California.

“They are not seeking to punish or seek revenge or exact tit-for-tat upon Ms. Pfeifer. They just want to raise their sons in a secure environment without threat of further abduction,” Castorena said.

And while Pfeifer lost her parental rights to the two boys, she hopes to someday reconnect with them.

“Hopefully, at some point, both the fathers will agree that it’s in the best interest of the children to see their mother, and some kind of visitation can be arranged where she’s residing,” defense attorney Richard Hirsch said.

Pfeifer must also pay restitution to the two fathers, one of whom is Robert Pfeifer, a former music executive who served time in prison in connection to the racketeering case against Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano. Prosecutors say most of the undisclosed restitution has already been paid.

Pfeifer’s attorneys say that she plans to leave Los Angeles and return to her home in Switzerland sometime in the next several days.

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International child abduction case has a Western New York angle

October 5 , 2014

Source: buffalonews.com 

Mom, daughter on the run crossed border in Falls

At an age when most girls are thinking about junior high, making new friends and fitting in, Isabella Miller-Jenkins is on the run from the law.

It’s an international journey, authorities say, that began with her kidnapping in Virginia, brought her to Buffalo and eventually landed her with a group of Mennonites willing to hide her in Nicaragua.

Isabella, now 12 and under the alias of Lydia, is believed to be living there with one of her two mothers, Lisa A. Miller, the woman accused of abducting her five years ago.

Their story, which has garnered national headlines, could very well end here if Isabella and her mother are ever found. A federal grand jury in Buffalo recently indicted Miller and two others on charges of conspiracy and international parental kidnapping.

“Isabella, like any other child, deserves to grow up in her home country with parents and relatives who love her,” Janet Jenkins, Isabella’s other legal parent, said in a statement to The Buffalo News. “I am grateful for the efforts of law enforcement in Vermont, Virginia, New York and Nicaragua who have been working to find Isabella and prosecute those who have conspired in her abduction.”

Unlike most cases of parental kidnapping, the Miller prosecution has unfolded on the national stage for all to see. The New York Times and Atlantic Monthly are just two of the many news organizations that have followed the story.

It’s a case chock-full of social and legal issues – same-sex marriage, homosexuality, parental rights – that divide much of the nation.

So why prosecute the case in Buffalo?

The allegation is that Miller, eager to leave what she now calls the “homosexual lifestyle,” fled Virginia with her daughter in 2009 and, with the help of co-defendant Philip Zodhiates, made her way to Buffalo.

It was here, at the Greater Buffalo International Airport, that she hired a taxi driver to take them across the Rainbow Bridge into Canada. From there, they made their way to Mexico and ultimately Nicaragua.

“Janet believes that her daughter is still in Central America in the company of Lisa Miller and the Amish Mennonite community,” Sarah R. Star, Jenkins’ Vermont lawyer, said in a statement.

Jenkins is eager to have her daughter home and is asking anyone who might know where she is to please come forward.

“Isabella is sorely missed by her mother Janet, her aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and many friends who have not seen her in five years,” the attorney said. “She requests that anyone with further information about Isabella’s whereabouts or her well-being contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.”

A renounced relationship

The photos of a smiling 7-year-old girl in blond pigtails have been part of the National Center’s website for four years.

A flyer with the words, “Missing. Please bring me home,” has been circulating since Miller fled Virginia with Isabella, leaving behind Jenkins, her partner from a civil union in Vermont.

Years earlier, Miller had renounced their relationship, returned to Virginia and, according to the Times, taken a job teaching at Liberty Christian Academy, a school founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

By then, Vermont had dissolved their civil union and granted custody to Miller and visiting rights to Jenkins.

Miller, now 46, would later acknowledge that, even before she and Jenkins moved from Virginia to Vermont, a state that recognized same-sex unions, she had started questioning their lesbian relationship.

Miller, who became pregnant through in vitro fertilization, also had a troublesome pregnancy with Isabella and, in notes that later became public, acknowledged a desire to reconnect with the church.

“I promised God that, if he would save my baby, I would leave the homosexual lifestyle,” she said in one of her journals.

One of her lawyers, Rena M. Lindevaldsen, associate dean of the Liberty University Law School, refers to the notes in “Only One Mommy,” her 2011 book on Miller’s decadelong fight to become Isabella’s only parent.

When the courts in Vermont and Virginia disagreed and upheld Jenkins’ visitation rights, Miller tried stopping her former partner from seeing their daughter.

When the courts again intervened and ultimately granted Jenkins custody, she left Virginia and never returned.

“I only want to see my daughter,” Jenkins told the Times in 2012. “What’s hard for me is not knowing what she’s going through.”

National implications

Jenkins, now 49, is still in Vermont and has since married another woman.

Even before she fled, there were hints that Miller might not accept the courts’ rulings on Jenkins’ visitation and custody rights.

In a 2009 letter to a judge in Vermont, according to the Times, she said Isabella, “knows from her own reading of the Bible that marriage is between a man and a woman … that she can not have two mommies.”

“What is at stake,” she told the judge, “is the health and well-being of an intelligent, delightful, beautiful, 7-year-old Christian girl.”

Early on in her custody fight, Miller enlisted the support of Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit Christian organization known for its pro bono work on issues such as same-sex marriage. The group argued that Virginia law, which did not recognize civil unions, should have precedence over the case, and that Miller should be declared Isabella’s sole parent.

A lower court in Virginia initially agreed, but the state’s appeals court took a far different stance. It said Vermont’s laws should rule.

Viewed as a custody fight with national implications, gay-rights groups such as Lambda Legal and Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders have joined the battle, providing legal aid to Jenkins.

No sightings since 2011

Sometime in late September 2009, Isabella and her mother arrived in Managua, Nicaragua, and were greeted by Timothy D. Miller, a Mennonite pastor who is no relation to Miller.

He took the two of them to Jinotega, a town in the “coffee-growing hills of northern Nicaragua,” according to the Times. They stayed for about two months, he told the paper, and returned to Managua, but had trouble accepting the isolation there.

Mother and daughter eventually went back to Jinotega but, in 2011, disappeared when word filtered back that Timothy Miller had been arrested in Washington, D.C., and charged with aiding in Isabella’s abduction.

By all accounts, there have been no sightings of Isabella or her mother since then. Authorities believe they are still somewhere in Nicaragua.

Lindevaldsen could not be reached to comment, but in a 2012 interview with C-SPAN, said she has no idea where her client ended up.

“It seems at one point she was in Nicaragua,” she said at the time, “but that’s all I know, as far as what’s in the court papers.”

The latest indictment also charges Timothy Miller and Philip Zodhiates with helping Lisa Miller escape the country. Zodhiates, a Virginia businessman, is accused of traveling with them to Buffalo and then contacting an unidentified individual who helped them make their way through Canada.

Zodhiates could not be reached to comment, but is expected to be arraigned Wednesday in Buffalo before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah J. McCarthy.

For Timothy Miller, this is the second round of federal charges. He was charged in 2011 after his arrest, but the government dropped the charges, reportedly because he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

A few months later, another Miller, Kenneth, a Mennonite pastor in Virginia, also was charged with aiding in Isabella’s kidnapping. None of the Millers are related.

In 2012, a federal court jury in Vermont deliberated only four hours before finding Kenneth Miller guilty. His 27-month prison sentence was stayed pending his appeal.

Defense lawyers for Kenneth and Timothy Miller could not be reached to comment, and prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont and Buffalo declined to comment.

Meanwhile, the FBI and Interpol’s search for Lisa Miller continues.

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Parental Abduction – Texas girl rescued in Mexico after missing for 12 years

October 1 , 2014

Source: abc7news

A Texas girl who was abducted and missing for 12 years was rescued Tuesday morning near Mexico City.

LEFT: Sabrina Allen pictured before she went missing 12 years ago. RIGHT: A photo of what Sabrina might look like today. (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children)

Sabrina Allen was four-years-old when she was abducted in 2002. Now 14-years-old, Allen was rescued in an operation conducted by the Mexican Federal Authority, FBI and U.S. Marshals. Sabrina and her alleged abductor, Dara Llorens, were flown back into Houston, TX on Tuesday night. Sabrina now is undergoing medical evaluation at an undisclosed facility in Austin, TX.

LLorens is Sabrina’s non-custodial mother, and was sought under a federal warrant for allegedly kidnapping her daughter after divorcing from her husband, Greg Allen. Allen made the following statement in a press release after hearing of Sabrina’s rescue.

“I am overjoyed that Sabrina has been found alive and is safe. Our entire family would like to thank the investigators that made this happen. Our prayers go out to the Mexican Federal Police Officer who was injured. We also would like to thank the Mexican Government for their cooperation in this case. Last, a heartfelt thank you to the USFBI, US Marshals, and all of the investigators that have worked this case for the last 12 years. They never gave up. We look forward to being reunited very soon.”

According to reports, Llorens and her daughter were able to avoid capture by changing their hair color. Llorens was booked into Travis County Jail in Austin, TX and is set on a $300,000 bond.

Authorities are scheduling a news conference later this afternoon to discuss the rescue and arrest.

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Parental Kidnapping – Va. mother faces kidnapping charges

September 29 , 2014

Source: charlestondailymail 

A Virginia woman wanted by police after allegedly kidnapping her three children was arrested in Kanawha County.

State Police stopped Lisa Ann Cantrell, 50, of Pound, Va., late Saturday on the West Virginia Turnpike in Kanawha County. Cantrell was wanted for kidnapping her three children, a 17-year-old boy, and two girls, aged 12 and 9.

The Wise County (Va.) Sheriff’s Office issued information about a “possible parental child abduction” on their Facebook page over the weekend. The post identified Cantrell and displayed pictures of her and her three children. A description of her vehicle, a green Chevrolet Suburban with Virginia license plates, was also given in the post.

A State Police parkways dispatcher said the vehicle’s information was entered into the National Crime Information Center’s database. A license plate reader in a State Police cruiser picked up the SUV’s tags as it passed at about 10 p.m. Saturday on Interstate 77-64 and the trooper pulled the vehicle over, the dispatcher said.

Virginia deputies posted on Facebook Sunday that the three children were “safe” and that family members were en route to West Virginia to pick them up. Wise deputies were not available for comment Sunday.

Cantrell is being held without bond at South Central Regional Jail and is awaiting extradition to Virginia where she will face kidnapping charges.

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Parental Child Abduction to Japan – ‘Racist’ cartoon issued by Japanese ministry angers rights activists

17 September , 2014

Source: scmp.com and CrnJapan.net 

Pamphlet issued by Tokyo to Japan’s embassies in response to Hague convention is criticised for depicting a foreign man beating his child.

Human rights activists in Japan have reacted angrily to a new pamphlet released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that they claim is racist and stereotypical for depicting white fathers beating their children.

The 11-page leaflet has been sent to Japanese embassies and consulates around the world in response to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction going into effect in Japan on April 1.

Tokyo dragged its feet on ratifying the treaty, which broadly stipulates that a child should be returned to his or her country of habitual residence when they have been taken out of that country by a parent but without the consent of the other parent.

But manga-style images of foreign fathers beating children and Japanese women portrayed as innocent victims have raised the hackles of campaigners, both those fighting discrimination against foreigners and non-Japanese who have been unable to see children who have been abducted by Japanese former spouses.

“It’s the same problem with any negotiations in which Japan looks like it has been beaten,” said Debito Arudou, a naturalised Japanese citizen who was born in the United States and has become a leading human rights activist.

“After being forced to give up a degree of power by signing the Hague treaty, they have to show that they have not lost face and they try to turn the narrative around,” he said. “It’s the same as in the debate over whaling.

“The Japanese always see themselves as the victims, and in this case, the narrative is that Japanese women are being abused and that the big, bad world is constantly trying to take advantage of them.”

Arudou is particularly incensed by the cover of the publication, which shows a blond-haired foreigner hitting a little girl, a foreign father taking a child from a sobbing Japanese mother and another Japanese female apparently ostracised by big-nosed foreign women.

“It is promoting the image that the outside world is against Japanese and the only place they will get a fair deal is in Japan,” said Arudou.

The rest of the pamphlet takes the form of a conversation between a cartoon character father and son, but with the storyline showing the difficulties of a Japanese woman living abroad with her half-Japanese son.

Arudou says the publication then “degenerates into the childish” with the appearance of an animated doll that is the father figure’s pride and joy, but also dispenses advice.

“As well as promoting all these stereotypes, why are they not talking about visitation issues for foreigners whose half-Japanese children have been abducted by their ex-wives?” asked Arudou.

Several foreigners who have been unable to see their children for years have already contacted Arudou to express their anger, with a number of US nationals saying they would pass the document onto lawmakers.

Arudou’s post on the issue on his website has also attracted attention, with commentators describing the pamphlet as “racist propaganda”.

“This is disgusting,” one commentator posted. “Pictures are powerful, more powerful than words. And the only time I’ve ever seen anything remotely like this is when I did a search for old anti-Japanese propaganda.

“Of course, that was disgusting too, but it was wartime!”

Another added, “What a pathetic advert for an ‘advanced’ country.

“As for the text – not wasting any more bandwidth on such utter racist, xenophobic, patronising, paranoid nonsense.”

Other links related to the case: http://www.mofa.go.jp/files/000034153.pdf and http://www.crnjapan.net/english-mofadoc.pdf

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Parental Abduction – Boy Abducted in Seattle May Pass by SD in Boat: FBI

September 13 , 2014

Source: NBC News

FBI officials are asking San Diegans to be on the lookout for a missing Seattle boy and his father who may pass by the area on their way to Mexico.

They believe Billy Ginger Hanson, 9, has been abducted by his biological father, Jeffrey Ford Hanson, 46, who may have taken to the high seas with the boy.

Law enforcement is concerned for the child’s safety because they say Hanson is extremely volatile.

Billy was supposed to return to his mother in Pennsylvania on Sept. 4, but he never boarded the flight.

The FBI believes Jeffrey and Billy Hanson may be aboard a white 1976 Cooper sailboat like the one pictured here. King County Sheriff’s Dept.

The FBI says Hanson, a known drug abuser, may be illegally taking his son to Mexico, the San Juan Islands or Tahiti in a 1976 Cooper sailboat with a 6-inchy red stripe along the side. The vessel named “Draco” has a Washington license plate of WN6783NZ.

In case they pass by the California coast, the agency has raised alarms here.

Billy is described as a Caucasian boy with brown hair and brown eyes, weighing 90 pounds and standing 4-feet tall.

Hanson is a Caucasian man with blonde hair and blue eyes. He stands 5-foot-5 and weighs 160 pounds. The FBI has issued a warrant for his arrest, accusing him of violating the international parental kidnapping statute.

If you know anything about the Hansons’ whereabouts, call the San Diego FBI office at 858-320-1800, the Seattle FBI office at 206-622-0460 or 911.

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Flight from Dulles to Beijing forced to return due to attempted kidnapping

September 5 , 2014

Source: Myfox / ABC News

An international flight, an apparent kidnapping and an unknowing plane full of passengers made for a bizarre scenario Thursday that unfolded 35,000 feet above the ground.

It should have been a routine flight for 180 passengers bound for Beijing Thursday; little did they know they were in the middle of a custody dispute.

The United Airlines flight departed Virginia’s Dulles International Airport at 12:39 p.m. When it reached Canadian air space, the FBI ordered the Boeing 777 back to Virginia after learning a kidnapping suspect was on board.

Flight 897 landed back at Dulles five hours after its departure.

Video

Once at the gate, passenger Lane Bailey says the pilot made an announcement; the incident stemmed from a child custody investigation. According to law enforcement sources, a child was traveling with his mother.

The child’s father, an American citizen, alerted the FBI fearing the mother was taking the child to China with no plans of returning.

At the airport, the mother was taken into police custody on attempted kidnapping charges. The child was returned safely to his father.

The ordeal soon started to make sense to the passengers onboard.

“The pilot came on board and said we were experiencing mechanical problems,” Bailey said. “After they left, the pilot came back on and said that he deliberately mislead us, he thought that, in his judgment that it was the best thing to do, given the circumstances of potential abduction that that’s the reason we had diverted.”

The child’s mother, who was arrested on Thursday at Dulles, is expected in court later today.

Had the plane landed in Canada or China and had the FBI, not intervened, the incident may have turned into a protracted international custody battle.

In 2009, David Goldman’s case drew worldwide attention after his son Sean was taken by his then-wife to Brazil.

After a five year legal battle, Goldman gained custody of his then nine-year-old.

Updates from CNN:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation had received an alert that a mother on that flight was allegedly taking her child out of the country illegally, an FBI spokesman told CNN.

Upon the flight’s return “the flight was met by law enforcement including FBI agents and three individuals were removed from the plane to include a grandmother, mother and child,” FBI spokesman Andrew Ames confirmed, via email.

“The mother was taken into custody on suspicion of committing an international parental kidnapping and the child was reunited with the father. The grandmother was not detained.”

The criminal complaint charges that Wenjing Liu, also known as Linda Liu, unlawfully attempted “to remove a child from the United States with intent to obstruct the lawful exercise of parental rights.”

After separating and starting divorce proceedings in 2013, Liu and William J. Ruifrok III were awarded joint custody of their 4-year-old son, who was born in China and is a dual U.S.-Chinese citizen, the complaint stated. The 2014 custody agreement doesn’t allow either party to travel outside of the United States without “express written and notarized consent of the other party, provided in advance of the trip,” according to the complaint.

In an interview with law enforcement after being removed from the flight, Liu admitted violating the custody order by removing her son from the United States without his father’s consent, according to the complaint.

She made her first appearance in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia on Friday and has a bond hearing scheduled for Monday.

After the aircraft returned to Dulles, United assigned a new crew due to crew flight time limits, and the flight departed again for Beijing at 7:47 pm ET, the United spokesperson said.

CNN’s initial attempts to reach a representative for Liu were not successful.

It’s a federal crime in the United States for parents to take or attempt to take their children out of the United States or keep them out of the country to obstruct another parent’s custodial rights. But while federal authorities may prosecute one parent, they can’t necessarily return a child who is already outside the country to the other parent.

About one quarter of the 1,800 to 2,000 annual missing children reports received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children are for international parental abductions, according to Maureen Heads, a supervisor in the center’s missing children division.

The U.S. Department of State tries to return kidnapped children through negotiation, sometimes made easier if the other country is also a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Parental Child Abduction. The United States and more than 70 other countries have signed the convention, but it only applies if both countries involved are signatories.

“That leaves many countries where there is no partner” for the United States to negotiate with, said Heads. “It can be a real challenge at times for parents.”

China is not a signatory to the convention, which Heads said could have made it harder for the father in the United Airlines case to get his child back.

 

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