For the Lost Blog

The untold tale of family abductions: Three girls missing, an international hunt

Christine Belford agreed to let her ex-husband take their three daughters to Disney World for a two-week vacation. In August 2007, the Delaware mother kissed her little blond girls goodbye.

Those two weeks were unsettling for Belford, then 34. The couple went through a bitter divorce in 2006 which resulted in joint custody of the children. Belford said when the girls were with their dad, they were always difficult to reach.

Two days into the trip, Belford connected by cell phone with her oldest daughter, Laura, then 5. Already homesick, chubby-faced Laura cried as her father checked them into a hotel room.

“I want to come home,” Laura pleaded with her mother.

But Laura and her sisters wouldn’t return to their Delaware home for 19 months.

Of course, to anyone who follows this blog, tales like this are hardly untold: they’re dealt with on an almost daily basis. The fact her kids lost weight and didn’t get medical treatment is also something I am no longer shocked by. The article mentions he’s facing thirty years in prison, but he’s also facing charges of bank fraud in addition to international parental kidnapping. He has thankfully pleaded guilty. And the eldest daughter is still dealing with issues from being told her mother was dead, which I predicted. My hopes for this bringing the problem of family abduction to the greater public is still there, but my realism tells me there will probably never be such a case.