Featured Image Credit: GoFundMe
Topics: US News, Crime, Parenting, World News, GoFundMe
Poppy Bilderbeck
Topics: US News, Crime, Parenting, World News, GoFundMe
Officials have confirmed a mom suspected of taking her children to Europe without the consent of their fathers has been arrested and charged.
At the end of November, Elleshia Anne Seymour, 35, is accused of taking her four children on a flight to Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and then on to Croatia, without the permission of either of the children's fathers.
Days later, the fathers realized their kids were missing and one of the fathers launched a GoFundMe page in a bid to be reunited with them.
He also alleged the mom 'left behind a note dictating a delusional message from God promising her she would be in Italy by Christmas'.
Advert
On Monday (January 26), Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office confirmed to FOX 13 Utah the mom has been arrested.
She's been charged with four counts of the third-degree felony of 'Custodial Interference - Remove Child from State' and was taken into custody on January 16 in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
However, the GoFundMe organized by the dad of three out of four of the children, Kendall Seymour, claims the kids remain 'trapped in Croatia'.
The latest update as of January 25 alleges the children are currently being housed in 'a state-run orphanage'.
Seymour says he is in the country and 'trying to get the kids out of the custody of the local government', but the battle remains ongoing.
The GoFundMe states: "We have to hire Croatian lawyers who specialize in child abduction, create and submit Hague Convention applications, hire court-approved translators, and extend our stay here by an unknown amount of time. All to work on getting the kids released from government custody."
And the cost impact of this led to the father raising the GoFundMe's donation goal.
He added: "Who knows how much money is going to be needed for therapy for the five of us, after this is all over.
"There is also a fifth American child in this children's home. My children were traveling with him and his mother. The fifth child’s situation is even more difficult than my own kids’ status.
"We would like to help him as much as possible - his situation is going to need more legal help and strategy than ours."
The Ministry of the Interior for the Croatian Republic of Serbia has since responded to the dad's claims of the children being 'trapped'.
In a statement shared with FOX 13 News, the ministry clarified the fathers coming to the country wouldn't be enough to release the children and that 'it is necessary for the competent authorities of the country from which the children came to the Republic of Croatia to conduct he procedure of verifying all relevant facts and circumstances and to make a valid decision on the handover of the children'.
It explained 'such verification is a standard procedure in cases of international cooperation and serves to ensure the continuity of the protection of the rights of the child'.
The statement added the 'father of the children is familiar with the procedure and documentation that must be submitted in order to collect the children'.
UNILAD has contacted the Ministry of the Interior for the Croatian Republic of Serbia for additional comment.