Girl missing for 12 years found with mom in Mexico

[alp227]

Source: AP

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) —A Texas girl reported kidnapped 12 years ago was found near Mexico City with her mother after authorities received a tip, and the mother was quickly flown to Texas and jailed on kidnapping charges, investigators said Wednesday.

The FBI and Mexico authorities said 17-year-old Sabrina Allen, whose case was twice profiled on the television show "America's Most Wanted," was found Tuesday night in Papalotla, Tlaxcala. She was 4 years old when she was reported missing by her father in 2002, after she vanished following a weekend visit with her mother.

"She's in pretty bad shape as far as my understanding," her father, Gregory Allen, said during a news conference with the FBI and Austin police on Wednesday. "She was not living a regular life. She has not been going to school."

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/c0eac072934a4e1c96264ad4f344b305/girl-missing-12-years-found-mom-mexico

[C Moon]

1. Poor kid. :(

[LoisB]

2. I hope she gets help to recover.

[marble falls]

3. There's a whole lot more to this story. There had been a horrible custody fight including charges...

of incest. Its not all cut and dried.

[madokie]

4. You know its a shame that conditions are as they are in our neighbors

we as a country and as people should be working our asses off trying to make things better there instead of the shit that is going down now. Taking advantage of them by our corporate masters and so many of our citizens not being willing to give a helping hand rather kick them as help them. I'm appalled at the mindset of so many of our brothers and sisters here in the states. I guess I can say that I have this place DU to thank for opening my eyes to all this. I came here pretty ignorant to the facts of our neighbors to the south of us and have made a 180 degree change. I guess its one at a time better than none at all.
I still think it sucks the way the south American people are treated by many of our people here.

It doesn't have to be this way

[a la izquierda]

6. First, Mexicans aren't South Americans. Mexico is part of North America.

But I'm not sure what Mexicans have to do with any of this, actually, except that this is where the crazy mother took her kid. I guess maybe the mom was Mexican? I'm not being critical to your post (except for the South American part).
The rest of your post is true. My students- college kids- have no clue about Mexico or the rest of Latin America. None. They had no idea who Pancho Villa was and most have no idea who Che Guevara is, except as the "dude on the shirt."

Sigh. Millions of Americans are appallingly ignorant.

[madokie]

8. My bad

[a la izquierda]

9. It's okay.

The rest of your post is important.

[madokie]

10. How stupid of me to have thought that Mexico was south America

I never had given that any thought I guess otherwise I'd have realized that it is part of the north American Continent.

[rock]

12. Don't sweat it madokie

There are a lot of other groups that could be called "Americans", North Americans, Central Americans, and South Americans. But English does not do a really formalize the categorization of the geography of the world and this leads to loose usage. Ah, well.

[Cleita]

11. Hey. I'm from South America, Chile to be exact.

I am an American citizen by birth because of mi padre. However, I'm so used to being called a Mexican here in the USA, I started to consider it my third nationality a long time ago.

[a la izquierda]

13. Hah!

I had to explain in painful detail to my students that South America is a separate continent, and that no, South Americans aren't Mexicans and vice versa.
I also had to explain that "American" is not a label monopolized by the US. That one really threw them for a loop

[TexasProgresive]

5. I can speak from personal experience on this matter.

I was taken by my father at the age of 2 into Mexico and then various other places. I never met my mother until I was 21. This child is going to be horribly torn, she has lost the only parent she really knew and she will feel that she is the blame for her mother being taken away. The dad isn't going to come out too good either as she may blame him.

Both my parents are dead now and they effected a kind of reconciliation which did not lead to a permanent coming together but at least there was forgiveness. No body ended up in jail-thankfully- I just don't think I could've borne that as a child or teenager.

I encourage all to send good vibes or prayers if you wish to this family broken though they are. We don't know the reason the mom took her child, in fact we don't know anything.

[kas125]

7. I know from experience, too. Only for me,

it was my son's father who took him - six months before it became illegal. My son was eight and didn't come home from school one day - his dad lied and said he was picking him up for a dentist appointment and they disappeared. We weren't divorced yet, so there was no help from the police, no help from anyone because no laws had been broken. Six months later a law went into effect making parental kidnapping illegal, but it was too late for me. Now my son and I are fine, but he'd been told that I was the one who left him so it was tough going for a while.

I'm sorry it happened to you. Parents are supposed to protect their children, not do things that hurt them.

[davidpdx]

14. Custody disputes that go across borders end up being a mess

I have heard of cases happening between international couples here in Korea.