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.
But to answer you, I was adopted by one parent. And I did spend years searching for my other parent (my mother had custody).
And at the age of 16, I went and met my father. However, like these children, I already had a life, and my biological father and I agreed that it would be appropriate to not change the situation, even though my mother had not been forthcoming with me, and had hidden his attemptes to contact me.
The problem is that I can look at this situation with greater objectivity, because I realize that emotions, no matter how powerful, of one party, can still be to the detriment of all parties involved. There is a phrase, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” I hope you can see that. Because I have relatives (so, I know firsthand, besides in theory) who were forced to go back and live with a parent who they did not want to live with, at the receiving parent’s request, and no good came out of it. The children will only resent a parent coming back on scene years later, if they lock up the father at the same time. I didn’t say the man shouldn’t have to face “Justice,” but I am saying that this won’t give the kids any.
“Correction,” is not a principle of Criminal Justice, it’s being used as a conjunction. LOL.
The fact of the matter is that Jail does not serve as a deterrent, which is why states now have 3 strikes laws. Because the previous two times of being convicted did not deter them, and doesn’t deter others, so they lock them up indefinitely.
Not quite correct, after 15 years she finally found her "kidnapped" children and had the authorities legally take the first steps in having them returned to her.......
It’s funny how you get to fill in the blanks, but we don’t. Seriously...using your logic, any kidnapped children that are found later should be left alone so not to interrupt their current lives. I guess Elizabeth Smart should still be with Brian Mitchell huh?
No telling what they've been told and they are just teenagers!
If I were the mother...I would be fighting the ex-husband like an angry bear!
P.S. I never advocated for a nation without laws or justice. Jail and fines have become a “One size fits all” “justice” system that isn’t working. The punishment MUST fit the crime, or people don’t learn. If you’re raised a child, it’s akin to a spanking for evrything they’ve done wrong, it doesn’t work on children either. They just go where you can’t see them and do it more. And sadly, sometimes, they blow your head off in the night too. It simply doesn’t work.
Jail does serve as a deterrant to others, if the trial gets a proper level of coverage.
The facts say that the ‘children’ have not been normally socialized, and will not be likely to lead normal lives. Any further contact between them and this sperm donor should be considered unacceptable, and he needs about 50 years in solitary to assure that.
You seem to be typical of the “class of ‘08” here.
Well, since you’re going to make up words to put in my mouth, feel content with talking to yourself too. See you around.
“If I were the mother...I would be fighting the ex-husband like an angry bear!”
.
And justly so!
.
Sperm donor’s don’t take care of their children. And there are not enough fines on criminals in the world to pay for our prison system.
And someone capable of intelligent reasoning doesn’t need to resort to trying to cliam the first date of posting on FreeRepublic as a means of discrediting a valid point. Shame on you.
I found this article which proves that the children were indeed lied to by their father.
http://www.sbsun.com/ci_15221943?IADID=Search-www.sbsun.com-www.sbsun.com
“Utrera called Segala a few days after he vanished to tell her that he and their children were in Mexico and that she would never see her son and daughter again.
Those words apparently held true until March, when Segala used the social networking Web site Facebook to search for her children’s names. That search led to a break in the case when she found her daughter’s Facebook profile.
Segala began a conversation with her daughter and provided the young woman with an old family photo showing both parents and children. Segala also told the child she had not seen for 15 years that she wanted to renew their relationship, but the daughter replied that she was happy in her current living arrangements and had been told bad things about her mother.
“According to the Facebook conversations, they regarded another woman as their mother,”
The problem that you aren’t seeing is that one day the pendulum will swing the other way.
This gender warfare has to stop, before No one will get married or have children for fear of what will happen to them. This is the exact type of [anti]reasoning (that which is on this thread) which is why young people refuse to get, and remain married.
Rather than isolating a single criminal behavior, it’s “The man this,” “the sperm donor” that. It’s pathetic, and everyone advocating it will one day rue the day they allowed themselves to be manipulated thusly. These children, no doubt, already do.
No where does that say that he told them anythign untrue. “Bad things” isn’t an adequate argument to make that point.
No where does that say that he told them anything TRUE!
No where does that say that he told them anythign untrue.
_____________________________________________
For the children to think that a stranger was their mother there would have had to be lies told...
“According to the Facebook conversations, they regarded another woman as their mother,”
Correct.
You’ve never hear the phrase “Step mother”? Don’t bother responding. BEcause you still wouldn’t have a point. To regard someone else as one’s mother is not synonymous with not knowing that she is not your birth mother. There is no evidence to make the point that you are implying exists.
Is “technically kidnapped” kinda like “technically raped”?
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