Abducted girl found in Germany, returned to her father

In December, we wrote about the serious problem of international child abduction by parents. The most common scenario for international child abduction involves a marriage and divorce between citizens of different countries. All too often, one of the parents will attempt to ignore a valid child custody order and take the child to another country. Many left-behind parents have little recourse when this happens. However, a recent story demonstrates how some children are successfully returned to their parents.

A 5-year-old girl who was missing since June of 2010 was recently found in Germany following an investigation conducted by international and local authorities. Bijan Richard, the father of the girl, had all but given up hope of seeing his daughter once again.

Richard returned from Germany to the U.S. recently after failing to find his daughter when an informant gave him specifics regarding the abducted girl’s location.

Richard and his former wife had been in a heated child custody battle. The 43-year-old woman allegedly abducted the girl during a June visit and brought her to Germany. The woman is currently in German custody awaiting extradition. She will likely face criminal charges in the U.S., including a felony charge for violating a child custody order.

The 5-year-old girl was ultimately located by agents from Interpol, an international police force.

According to Richard, the informant met his ex-wife, along with his daughter, in Germany. The informant was suspicious that something was wrong when the daughter and mother gave conflicting stories regarding Richard, and, following some investigation of his own, determined that the girl had been abducted and he contacted Richard.

In the meantime, the girl was separated from her mother and placed in the care of a foster family as she waited for Richard’s arrival. After nearly one year apart, the two reunited and returned to the United States. Richard said that his daughter’s hair is shorter, but her vocabulary is larger.

Source: KWGN.com, “Abducted Littleton girl, 5, found in Europe, mother faces charges,” Tammy Vigil, 4/12/2011