For the Lost Blog

I have been closely following the abduction of Luca Principali from his Idaho home. He was taken while being looked after by a baby-sitter. She answered the door and there was a bearded man there who stated he was there with Luca’s mother. (His parents are seperated; his mother has not seen him in a year and a half.) Neighbors heard a scream and an Amber Alert was issued. This article shows the planning involved in the abduction.

A slashed car tire delayed Luca Principali’s father just long enough for his mother and an accomplice to nab him from his Boise home, investigators said last week to persuade a judge to issue a warrant for her arrest for kidnapping.

The half-hour it took Anthony Principali to change his tire bought the time the kidnappers needed to nab the boy and leave a 14-year-old baby sitter so scared she didn’t call police.

This is elaborate, of course, but not overly so for a parental kidnapper. What I found refreshing was his mother’s admission of her motive.

About two hours after Luca was abducted on Aug. 19, Ekaterina Principali called Anthony Principali and told him she took the boy to teach the father a lesson and that she would return the boy later.

Very few abductors admit at the start they are doing it to spite the other parent. I would actually rather see this than someone blathering on about how the kid’s better off with the abductor.

Incidentally, the divorce papers Anthony Principali filed that day asked for joint custody of Luca. It was only after the kidnapping that he asked this to be changed to sole custody.

I sincerely hope that Luca is found before he’s eligible for our site.

DNA confirms it. And she has had two children with her kidnapper. I’m disgusted, but not really surprised.

Considering there are several other unsolved abductions in the general area, I hope these people are looked at.

I am sure by now everyone’s seen this story. Didn’t stop me from saying to myself “Oh my God.” This is Shawn Hornbeck, Elizabeth Smart, Natascha Kampusch, and Francisco Andrade Vega cubed.

I would be lying if I said that Jaycee would be okay from now on. But her family and friends don’t have to wonder anymore. Even if she had been found dead, that would be a plus. This is even better.

For the Lost is mentioned briefly in this article about the Port St. Joe Polaroids that still are unsolved to this day. I am pretty sure this is the first time the organization has been mentioned in an article about anything. It doesn’t say a great deal about it that’s new, but it’s interesting reading nonetheless.

I never wanted this to happen to family abduction kids on my site.

It now has.

All three were found dead in their father’s car, which had been run into a lake. The father was also inside. It coud be accident. It could have been murder/suicide. No one will ever know.

I’ve added the cases of Adam and Jason Shannon and Luis Munguia-Zendejas. I’ve updated the victims post. Right now I’m too depressed to do anything else.

Mother arrested; children taken into custody

BENTONVILLE – A more than decade-long search ended Thursday night when Showana Kissinger was arrested at a residence outside Quinton, Okla.

She and her two children disappeared on Dec. 13, 1997, during a custody dispute with her husband, David Kissinger, of Siloam Springs.

The children – Taylor Rae Kissinger and Dylan Lee Kissinger – were taken on the day their father’s parents were to pick them up for Christmas vacation.

In this case, the fact that the children were snatched before a visit with their paternal grandparents speaks volumes about the true motivation in this case. Whatever the father was alleged to have done has no bearing on what his parents would do. Therefore, the kidnapping is about making sure her ex’s family was spited, just like in so many other cases. Twelve years is a long time to be seperated, but hopefully the Kissinger children can have a relationship with their father now.

Missing children from Louisiana found

Two children missing for the last two years were located Tuesday by deputies at a Star Valley home with their noncustodial mother, living under assumed names.

On Monday, the Gila County Sheriff’s Office received a call from the Webster Parish Sheriff’s Department in Louisiana who said they had been searching for the children, 14 and 11 years old, for the last two years, and they were believed to be in the Star Valley area with their mother, Barbara Collins.

The first case in the article was one where the children were found living in a tent with their mother, and the tent was scattered with drug paraphernalia. The second case is of the Collins girls, where there was concern the eldest girl, who has spina bifida, was not receiving medical attention. While I am somewhat surprised there were two family abduction cases found in the same area, the conditions are sadly something I am used to at this point. I hope all the children involved can now begin to recover from this situation.

Mother and daughter reunited after twelve years

After 12 years of losing her daughter to international abduction by the child’s father, Janet Greer’s moment finally arrived.
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With anchorman Chris Cuomo from “Good Morning America,” at her side, Greer entered her daughter’s world today. It was one she’d been cut from for a dozen years, because Sarah “Dowsha” Elgohary’s family refused to let Greer to see her own child.
The Egyptian courts and leaders refusing to intervene on Janet’s behalf.

Finally, the day she’s dreamed and fought so hard to see materialize, has dawned.
Greer went to Egypt, where she saw her daughter today.

I find it interesting that as soon as Sarah learned her mother was not dead she wanted to see her. I have speculated that if an abducted child is told the parent is dead they are more open to a reunion when the opportunity presents itself. If the left-behind parent is still known to be alive, the abductor must present alienating circumstances that justifies the kidnapping instead of letting the child think the parent is dead and reunion impossible. I have no way of looking at this empirically of course. Stories like this one are what makes all the sweat and toil poured into family abduction cases worth it.

Boy Abducted by Father in August

An 8-year-old Burlingame boy allegedly abducted by his father in August and taken to Mexico has been reunited with his mother, a police sergeant said Thursday.

Maxim Yu’s father Jason Yu was supposed to meet Maxim’s mother in Detroit on Aug. 19 but never showed up with the boy, according to Burlingame police Sgt. Ed Nakiso.

Maxim’s mother then notified authorities, including the Burlingame Police Department. For months Maxim remained missing until the state department received information he was in Mexico, Nakiso said.

His mother traveled to Mexico where she and Maxim were reunited. They returned to the Bay Area on Saturday, according to Nakiso.

While Mexico is a popular destination for abducting parents, in this case it was a very bad choice. Two people of Chinese descent in Mexico are going to be very noticeable. I’m happy they did not go to Taiwan like expected, because the chances of Maxim coming home then would be about zero. I wish he and his mother the best in re-adjusting.

Police say woman used different names, Social Security numbers

A Seacoast business owner has been arrested and charged with being on the run from crimes she allegedly committed in Arizona 12 years ago.

Police said Danielle Bascom, 50, was difficult to track down because she uses six aliases, three birth dates and four Social Security numbers. Investigators said she is also known as Paula and sometimes uses the last names Bruno, Bryce and McClain.

This is the only article I could find about Darlene Tolbert, and it’s about her mother and not her. It mentions the case was dropped, but nothing about where her daughter is now. I will keep looking but doubt I will ever find more information.