Finding out that a child is missing can be a traumatic experience, and a parent’s worst nightmare. Any Texas custody lawyer knows that experience can take a turn for the worst when the abductor is the child’s own parent. Kidnapping of a child by a parent can be a devastating family issue and one where the other parent can feel helpless.
Recently, a father experienced that nightmare, and is now fighting for custody of his only daughter after the child’s mother fled through Texas, and attempted to cross the Texas-Mexico border. The mother and father are divorced and the father has primary custody of his daughter, while the mother has stipulated visitation rights. During a visitation, the mother took their daughter, a 4-year-old, and a teenage daughter from another marriage and fled from her home in Missouri over the Texas border into Mexico. She was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol, and the children were placed with child protective services in Texas until their fathers could retrieve them.
Abducting a child, even one’s own child can violate numerous state and federal laws, not to mention the initial court custody order. Law enforcement officials in the child’s home state, plus federal authorities such as the FBI, may get involved to find the child. Once the child has been returned, the other parent may wish to seek modification of the custody order and have abducting parent’s custody rights denied.
The mother is currently in jail in Starr County in Texas, and is facing a felony charge for interfering with custody and a misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of a child in her home state.
Source: LibertyTribune.com, “Father seeks custody of child after mother heads for the border,” Angie Anaya Borgedalen, Jan. 24, 2013