Posted on 06/08/2010 8:33:24 AM PDT by MissTed
A Southern California mother whose two children were reported missing 15 years ago has tracked them down in Florida using Facebook.
The children's father, Faustino Utrera, took off with them in 1995 when they were ages 2 and 3, said San Bernardino Deputy District Attorney Kurt Rowley. The mother had found her daughter's Facebook profile after searching for her name on the social networking site in March, Rowley said.
An official said Saturday that the now 17-year-old girl and 16-year-old boy have been placed in the custody of the state of Florida.
"You can imagine the feelings she's having, not seeing her children for so many years and knowing they've bonded with another family," Rowley said about the mother. "But at the same time they're almost within her grasp."
The two teenagers are being cared for by a non-relative in Florida with whom the pair have an existing relationship, said Florida Department of Children and Families spokeswoman Elizabeth Arenas, who did not identify the mother.
She referred further questions to the woman's lawyer, who did not return a phone call.
Osceolla County Sheriff's deputies detained Utrera on an arrest warrant last month obtained by San Bernardino County prosecutors who were contacted by the missing children's mother, Rowley told the San Bernardino Sun.
He was charged with kidnapping and violating child custody orders.
Rowley said that when the daughter's profile was found on Facebook, she initially told her mother that she did not want to re-establish their relationship, but the contact helped prosecutors file two felony counts each of kidnapping and child abduction against Utrera.
Rowley said he expected Utrera to fight extradition at a July 17 hearing in Florida.
At least they are almost adults. It’s still going to be traumatic, but since they are staying with a non-relative, it might be even worse if they were little.
I have to wonder what further details are relevant to this story. Considering that the 17 year old daughter, didn’t want to go live with the mother, why the mother didn’t just leave them alone. I know the father technically “kidnapped” his own children 15 years before, but, well, this seems like it can’t be productive at this point.
I’m open to hear others’ thoughts though too. Flame on :)
“almost within her grasp.”
That says it all for me...And why is the mother not named, or did I miss that?
Great observation.
On the one hand, I’m glad the Mom has found her children.
But on the other hand....
What does it say about Facebook and the complete lack of security and privacy that allows strangers to know intimate details about minor children?
Bookmark
That has to do with the profile settings, but I agree, the defaults should all be to private in my opinion, not public.
Maybe she was a drug using freak or maybe he just wanted to take the kids to hurt her. Doesn't appear as if she ever gave up trying to find them though.
I don’t disagree with her being upset, maybe she wants closure. I disagree with the complete interruption of the two children’s lives, on the basis that she was supposed to have the children and now doesn’t.
It seems more, than glancingly, like the Solomon baby dispute... “I’d rather completely disrupt their way of life, thrown into turmoil, and hassle my ‘children’ who are basically grown adults (who—at least one—have said they don’t want a relationship with me), for their own good, and so we can have a fmaily I never got.” After all, they are almost within her unnamed “grasp.”
And I don;t support this man breaking the law. This situation is only being made worse and worse. The unnamed woman, is as good as a stranger now to the children, there is no way that this event can will bring them closer together. She made contact, and was rejected, and THEN, went after the children forcibly, as far as we can tell.
So this is just going to make a bad situation exponentially worse.
“Considering that the 17 year old daughter, didn’t want to go live with the mother, why the mother didn’t just leave them alone.”
Unbelievable! You would wash your hands of your kids if they were kidnapped and brainwashed? Really? Have you ever heard of Stockholm syndrome? And the 17 year old daughter gets to decide for her brother?
One guarantee is that he father didn’t ever tell the kids the truth about why they didn’t have a mother. Either he lied and said she abandoned them, or he said she died, or he said horrible things about her making them think she was a monster. The father is a manipulative SOB. He knows better than the courts, and the law doesn’t apply to him.
I hope his prison sentence for kidnapping lasts at least as long as the sentence the kids mother served. For 15 years she was in an emotional prison of his making. Not knowing if the kids were safe, cared for, fed. Not getting to see them, talk to them, hug them. And now they hate her, by no fault of hers.
OK...if the children had been kidnapped by a complete stranger, would you feel any different?
Your post is over-reaching, over-emotional, and merely conjecture. And these kids will only continue to suffer for attitudes like that.
You’re entitled to you opinion, but it doesnt change that fact.
I’m not willing to make a sweeping globalization as to what I would feel differently about, and to what extent, but, yes, I would feel differently.
Foremost because a man has a responsibility to care for his own children, as in evidenced in that he would be required to pay child support, without having custody. However, I’m not willing to debate the nitty gritty of divorce law, and the inherent corruption there in. It would take too long.
That the man is guilty of violating a court order, we can agree upon. I’m not for jail-time for anyone. It’s not effective for deterrent or rehabilitation, and certainly doesn’t recompense victims, it’s only used for vengeance (These are the 4 purposes of law enforcement if you do not know). I’m not ambiguous on that point. Most people are only thinking of the revenge portion of law enforcement, and thus, that would compound the issue most are likely to bring up when arguing.
Jail time serves little purpose, and I would want to know the state of the children, before handing out a sentence. Still, I will maintain that this woman’s actions, like her baby’s daddy’s before her, only futher will wreak havoc in the children’s lives.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2529000/posts?q=1&;page=76#76
This thread has already been done. There is a lot of emotion behind the posts.
“Your post is over-reaching, over-emotional, and merely conjecture. And these kids will only continue to suffer for attitudes like that.”
Now you get to prove that my post is over-reaching, over-emotional and conjecture.
Do you believe for one minute that he ever told the kids the truth? Do you believe that he ever told the kids that he kidnapped them? Don’t you think that the kids would have searched out their mother? How about when they were disciplined by Daddy, and they believed it to be unfair. Don’t you think they would have sought out their mother? Why didn’t they search her out? Because they either believed her to be dead, or a monster.
Have you ever seen the lengths that adoptees go to in searching for birth parents that gave them up willingly?
If you knew that you had a parent that you were stolen from and that spent 15 years searching from you, because she loves you, wouldn’t you seek her out?
Correction, Rehabilitation, Deterrence, Restitution and Revenge are the four purposes of the Criminal “justice” system, not law enforcement, I wanted to clarify that.
I don’t need to prove it. The post was off the wall in the first place. Unless you can substantiate any of the claims you initially made like how the dad made a mental “prision” for the mom, and the like, then don’t bother. You have an agenda to push, and it’s one based upon your own emotions, and not mine.
“Correction, Rehabilitation, Deterrence, Restitution and Revenge “
That’s 5!
Nation of laws, justice, etc.
You advocate for a “slippery slope.”
The punishment dished out to this self-important pile of excrement has to serve as a deterrant to others.
.
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