A child: lost, found, and lost again.

[Zoetstofzoetje]

odd thing i found another 8-year old with the same story in texas

[Dr Strangelove]

Uh, this question was asked at another forum. My answer is that the child has to go back to the biological mother.
There hae been a number of cases like this in the past. The kidnapper is always the other parent, often one who lost the custodial battle in court but sometimes one who jujst decides that he or she doesn't want to stay married and takes the fastest way out, i.e., leaves the country. The fact that the kid was given up for adoption proves that the person was unfit for parenting and if he or she was not given custody that the court made the correct decision. It shows that there was no love for the child involved and that removing the child from the other parent was nothing more than criminal kidnapping motivated by spite. If the courts of the country the child was removed to doesn't return it to the biological parent then it also will not extradite the kidnapper back to the original country. How can it do so after ruling that the adoptive parents were the rightful parents? You might as well legalize human trafficking.

[The Mad Monk]

Neither parent was involved in the kidnapping.

[The Mad Monk]

It's been a local story for about a week now, at least that's when I first became aware of it from the radio.

UPDATE: U.S. officials: Liberty couple won’t be force to return adopted daughterBy Angie Anaya Borgedalen
POSTED: 10:08 am CDT May 16, 2012
UPDATED: 1:03 pm CDT May 16, 2012

A Liberty couple, Timothy and Jennifer Monahan, will not be forced to return a Guatemalan girl they adopted to her birth parents although the child was allegedly abducted from her birth mother’s side in 2006 by what was believed to be a child-trafficking ring.


According to Victoria Nuland, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department,

Guatemalan officials had been informed that the Monahans would not be forced to return the child because the two countries had not signed the Hague Convention on Abduction. The treaty was signed Jan. 1, 2008, more than a year after the initial abduction took place but before the girl left the country bound for the United States.

Nuland said at a press briefing May 15 in Washington, D.C., that the United States was deeply concerned about allegations regarding stolen children and inter-country adoptions.

“Our primary goal in any kind of inter-country adoption is that they be ethical, that they be transparent,” Nuland said via an email link. “That’s why we push so many countries to join the Hague Convention on Adoptions.

“That said, we can’t accept cases under the Hague Convention on Abduction if the treaty was not in force at the time of the alleged wrongful removal or retention.”

Nuland said the proper venue for pursuing the case would be in state courts.

“They’re the competent organ for holding a full hearing on the merits and the best interests of the child,” Nuland said.

The child, Anyeli Hernandez Rodriguez who was born Oct. 1, 2004, was reportedly abducted on Nov. 3, 2006, when she was 2 years old, and whisked away in a taxi cab as her mother was opening the door to their home in San Miguel Petapa.

Last year a Guatemalan judge ruled in favor of the birth parents, Loyda Rodriguez and her husband Dayner Orlando Hernandez, and ordered the child be returned to them and her passport canceled.

The girl, now 7, spent time in an orphanage while her birth parents searched for her with the assistance of Survivors’ Foundation, a human rights organization. The child left Guatemala on Dec. 9, 2008, as Karen Abigail Monahan VanHorn. Jennifer Monahan’s maiden name is VanHorn. There have been no allegations made that the Monahans knew the child they adopted had been kidnapped.

When contacted last year by the Liberty Tribune after the story broke, the Monahans declined to comment and posted a note on the door of their upscale house on Woodbury Lane saying, “Please respect our privacy and do not trespass on our private property. Thank you.”

They also hired the Peter Mirijanian public relations agency to represent them. The agency could not be reached for comment, but earlier had released this statement: “The Monahan family will continue to advocate for the safety and best interests of their legally adopted child. They remain committed to protecting their daughter from additional trauma as they pursue the truth of her past through appropriate legal channels.”

Neighbors said the Monahans have three children, two of them adopted. Timothy Monahan is an orthopedic surgeon with offices in Liberty and staff privileges at Liberty Hospital.



Liberty Editor Angie Anaya Borgedalen can be reached at 389-6636 or aborgedalen@npgco.com.

http://www.kccommunitynews.com/liberty-tribune-news/31071655/detail.html

[Dinner]

That ruling is outrageous.

[Wiglaf]

OUTRAGEOUS!!

[Elok]

It seems kinder to the child to leave him/her with the parents and other family he/she grew up with rather than hand him/her over to a stranger, though of course the parent/s should be allowed to be a part in the child's life.

[DaShi]

Easy, adoptive parents.

[Dr Strangelove]

The court ruled that the treaty didn't apply because the kidnapping ocurred before the treaty was signed, but the chid was brought to the United States after the date the treaty was signed. I would think the relevant date would be the day on which the local crime became an international one, i.e., when the child was removed from her native country.

[giblets]

It seems kinder to the child to leave him/her with the parents and other family he/she grew up with rather than hand him/her over to a stranger, though of course the parent/s should be allowed to be a part in the child's life.

Yes. I don't really understand why the welfare of the child doesn't take priority for so many people.

[Uncle Sparky]

Easy, adopt the parents.

Corrected.

The rich Americans should adopt/hire/purchase the hispanics who are the biological parents, then they could all live together.

[OzzyKP]

Yes. I don't really understand why the welfare of the child doesn't take priority for so many people.

[MRT144]

How could you ask the kid? Kids can't even speak English at 8. Do you also ask your dog if it'd like to go to a movie with you.

Is this pre or post coitus for the dog?

[Barnabas]

the kid thinks the adoptive parents are the real parents, giving it back to the biological parents would be cruel, I agree with what Elok said, the child will have 4 parents from now on, and decide on what do with his life as a teenager

[Addled Platypus]

I lose

I posted