The Miami boy was allegedly abducted from his father and grandmother on August 27 after the parents had a custody dispute. Surveillance footage showed a father and son on August 29 at a store in Maine near the Canada-US border. An abandoned SUV was found in the area the same day. Investigators suggested the three crossed into Canada illegally. It was their last sign. For two months, the child’s mother did not know where her son was or if he would be okay. On Sunday, the FBI called her to say someone at a Moncton Walmart tipped off the RCMP after recognizing the family from media coverage. “I cried from happiness — I didn’t know how I felt,” the woman said in an interview Monday. “I’ve been crying for two months now.” The CBC is not naming the family members to protect the identity of the child since he is no longer missing.
Talked to her son Sunday
The mother was able to speak on the phone Sunday with her son, who has autism. She said she has been with a social worker and is doing well. “He has no idea what’s going on, he just knows he’s playing with Legos and he’ll see me soon,” she said. He said the boy’s passport is being expedited and the social worker can bring him back to Miami Monday night. He said he doesn’t know why the alleged kidnappers headed to New Brunswick. “We have no idea. There’s no family there. There’s no one we can connect there,” she said of the boy’s father. The mother said a “thank you” is not enough for the person who called the police. “I am overwhelmed with eternal gratitude,” he said. “If I could ever get hold of that person, I would just want to talk to them and thank them in person. It took courage, I’m sure, to make that phone call. But that phone call was the difference between reuniting a family and a child is in danger”. He also said he is grateful for the many law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation on both sides of the border. On Monday, the FBI declined to comment as it remains an active investigation.
Start issuing process
Det. Alvaro Zabaleta of the Miami-Dade Police Department told Radio-Canada that the 45-year-old man and 69-year-old woman remain in custody in Canada. Zabaleta said the extradition process is beginning. Canada’s Department of Justice said in an email to CBC that extradition requests are confidential and will not confirm a request until it is made public by the court system. The department’s website for the extradition process says a judge would have to approve the request.
