The U.S. Marshals Service has recovered a 4-year-old child who was reportedly abducted by his mother in Connecticut and taken to Puerto Rico.
The child was found last Thursday after the U.S. Marshals Service Puerto Rico Violent Offenders Task Force was asked for assistance from authorities in Connecticut, the U.S. Marshals Service said.
Officials said the child was kidnapped by their mother who had exposed them to “dangerous altercations” with the child’s father. She was arrested at that time and charged with risk of injury to a minor and second-degree reckless endangerment, and the child was relocated, officials said.
According to authorities, the mother, who has not been identified, allegedly fled to Puerto Rico and later appeared in court in Connecticut on Sept. 27 without the child. She was arrested at that time on kidnapping and custodial interfering charges.
According to the U.S. Marshals Service, an investigation determined that the child was living with the mother’s boyfriend. The child was found in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. The child was “safely recovered and appeared to be healthy,” the U.S. Marshals Service said.
“The Puerto Rico Department of Family Services responded, and after conducting interviews and gathering information, they took custody of the child to arrange for their return to the biological father,” officials said.
“This significant arrest is another example of the results we can obtain from a coordinated collaboration with state agencies and demonstrates the commitment of the men and women of the U.S. Marshals Service to bring these fugitives to justice,” U.S. Marshal for the District of Puerto Rico Wilmer Ocasio-Ibarra said in a statement.
“All our cases are important, but those against children are of the upmost priority for our personnel,” Ocasio-Ibarra said. “We will continue to be vigilant against any criminal who evades justice and tries to hide so as not to assume his or her responsibility. Our commitment to our citizens comes first and we will allocate all necessary resources to make our communities safe, maintaining a quality of life that we all deserve in Puerto Rico.”
