Interview with Left-behiind Parent
Larry, when was your child abducted, and where to? That was the most horrific day in my life, just as it would be for any left-behind parent. On September 2, 1999, I walked into the Fresno County Superior Court (Fresno, CA) with a written declaration by Svetlana Synclair, the mother of our son. Her declaration attested to two prior abductions of our son, Larry Synclair Jr., while we were residing in Moscow. Russia. I had another declaration by our former nanny describing physical child abuse and abduction committed by Svetlana. With these papers was a letter from the State Department warning that a U.S. custody order was unenforceable in Russia. I expected the laws of the state to protect Larry Jr. from further threats of abuse and abduction while enforce his right to be raised by both parents. What I discovered was the first step of what most parents of abducted children stumble onto, court ignorance. Judge Jane Cardoza, who recently went through a bitter divorce and child custody battle, refused to go over the evidence we presented. She claimed the time spent on the custody hearing was too long and she was ready to give a decision. The judge ruled that our son, who was born in Fresno, would live in Moscow. During the summer, he would visit me in the U.S. When my attorney reminded her about the physical attacks on Larry Jr. and me, the prior acts of abduction, and the threats of further abduction, this moronic judge said she saw no evidence of abuse and suggested the parents work it out. It was this kind of judicial stupidity – a definite example of ignoring the law and evidence to permit personal bias – that destroyed my life with Larry Jr. I don’t use words like “stupidity” and “moronic” to vent my anger and pain. These words literally describe or illustrate this court’s irrational personal bias. It is shocking many courts in the United States make similar decisions because of their lack of knowledge about international parental abduction, the serious damage this crime causes to our children, and what measures are needed to prevent it. For example, the Fresno County judge who mishandled this custody case was confident a safeguard in her custody order would be effective should another abduction of Larry Jr. occur. She demanded a copy of her order be submitted to the sheriff of Moscow. That’s how much professional thought and effort this court applied into the care and safety of our son – a copy of the custody order to the sheriff of Moscow. To those not familiar with Russia, there’s no sheriff of Moscow and the law enforcement system in Russia is highly corrupted and incompetent. There are no Russian child abduction prevention laws or responsible legal support to protect children. This kind of governmental insolence to the lives of children appears to run rampant in this part of the state...and it appears quite often in other counties in other states as well. Fresno County, which was recently ranked as one of the worst counties in California when it comes to protection of children, epitomizes Nietzsche’s quote: “To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.” Clearly, the doctrine of best interest of the child was tossed out this court’s window a long time ago. It’s sad there are many other courts that did the same.Cardoza’s decision to hand Larry Jr. to the abducting parent rocked me hard. Family members tried to console me, as I sobbed profusely in court. I knew Larry Jr. would disappear and the court didn’t give a damn about his life. Adding salt to the wound, the judge would not give me an opportunity to say goodbye to my son. I can understand being denied if I was an abusive parent, had issues with drug abuse, or was an overall threat to society. But I’ve never been that kind of person – in fact, all the evidence about abuse and abduction clearly pointed to the other parent. To deny me that last chance to hold Larry Jr,, at four years of age, before he went back to Moscow – well, that merely illustrates the kind of cold despicable judges that we, meaning left-behind parents, will often deal with. Is there another level or higher resource we can rely on if the errors of the court, or the acts of the abductor, result in international parental abduction? More than often, the answer is no. This inability to find reliable help sparked something inside me…some need to implement action against these dysfunctional officials. There had to be a way to repair what was broken in this system so left-behind parents could have their parental rights protected. Otherwise, courts like those in Fresno County would continue to act as a rotating door for abducting parents hauling away our children to other countries. By the way, Larry Jr. will be 14 years old this May. He is somewhere in Moscow, Russia. I don’t even know if he’s aware that I am alive. How much contact have you had with your child since he was abducted? Very little at first – none, since then…thanks in part to Fresno County and our federal government. When I say federal government, I am not expressing any political side. Conservative, liberal, independent…whatever – the federal government has a general lackadaisical attitude to international parental abduction. I discovered that as soon as my son disappeared to Russia.During the first year of Larry Jr’s abduction, his mother, Svetlana, permitted some phone calls – but they were under certain restraints. Larry Jr. told me in English that he wanted to come home or that he wanted to see me. Of course, how could I since his mother abducted him and refused any visitation? The phone conversations gradually diminished as Svetlana refused to answer my calls. The last few times on the phone consisted of his mother whispering to him how to respond to my questions, which were one-worded answers in Russian. During the same time, Svetlana permitted someone from the embassy to conduct a few welfare checks; but consular officer never discussed the issue of abduction with her. The results of the welfare check consisted of a censored report scarred with black marks over the text to prohibit me from knowing all the contents of their discussion. Thereafter, Svetlana refused all welfare checks and the embassy wiped its hands from further responsibility. When I pushed the embassy to press upon my son’s mother to allow phone calls with our son, she demanded I provide her a list of what questions I could ask our son over the phone. Her demands quickly changed and she instructed the embassy to wait for her list of questions that they would forward to me. In the end, all phone conversations ended and I would never see or hear from Larry Jr. again.About a year ago, I discovered a Russian blog with a comment written by Svetlana to another parent. She confessed her troubles with Larry Jr. Svetlana mentioned about his failing grades and, at the age of twelve, he tried to run away from his mother. Fortunately, our son was persuaded by a friend to remain home. But today, I don’t even know if he is living at home or if he’s living on the streets. Explain some of your efforts to find and recover your son? After Larry was abducted, I tried to get Fresno County to comply with its own custody order regarding enforcement. Sadly, law enforcement refused. Some of them claimed abduction did not take place. What can you expect from those who work for one of the worst California counties to protect children? For example, the chief of the district attorney’s Child Abduction Unit, Barbara Dotta, was a deputy insurance commissioner who was linked by whistleblowers to a major scandal. I managed to convince another judge from Fresno County to order the district attorney’s office to notify federal authorities about the abduction of Larry Jr. Inside the court, the DA’s office agreed my rights, especially my son’s rights, were violated. Outside the court, they intended to not comply with the court. The DA’s office created a wild story that Fresno County should not have jurisdiction; so, in violation of the judge’s order, they granted themselves with the power to claim Russia would have jurisdiction and the county would not assist my case any further. Going back to the word “stupidity”…there are deputy district attorneys in Fresno County who have this self-proclaimed supremacy they have the ability to undermine judicial decisions at a whim. It does not take a person with a law degree to know a deputy DA cannot go behind a judge’s back, decide to function correspondingly like a judge, and decide which court will have authority to issue decisions or not. This isn’t even an issue of using discretionary power; this is a prime example of contempt of court. Now I was fighting not only for some means to recover my son, but the boneheads who refused to do their job. I immersed myself into reading law books then filed a federal lawsuit against the county and several of their deputy DAs for due process violations which resulted in damaging my parental rights. In response, the county decided to use its taxpayers’ dollars to hire a law firm, rather than use their county counsel, to fight me in court. Isn’t that despicable? The DA’s office will prosecute people for contempt of court, yet members within the same office break the same law and get protection using other people’s money. While this mess in California was going on, the Office of Children’s Issues (OCI) at the U.S. State Department continued messing things up as well. For years, I fought with some real idiots in this federal agency that’s responsible for handling international parental abduction cases. There’s only a few people that have shown any sense of compassion or effort. Noticed that I used the word “few”? The only effort that OCI made to spur this lazy and incompetent embassy in Moscow to move their butts was to issue requests for them to call Svetlana and ask for a welfare check of my son. These are requests that his mother refused for seven or eight years…so why did OCI prefer to walk down the same ill-fated road of non-progress? After filing the lawsuit against the county, I filed a motion to change the venue to San Diego. After all, it would be a conflict of interest for Fresno County to make custody decisions when I was suing them and I needed a reliable impartial court to bring my son home. After my motion was granted, San Diego County jumped on board to help me despite false information by the Fresno County DA’s office to obstruct effort. They told the Child Abduction Unit in San Diego that Russia had jurisdiction, although they had no official or legitimate court order to support that. San Diego County looked into these allegations of jurisdiction and recognized the other county officials were lying. I was granted full custody of my son and Svetlana is now wanted by the state for child abduction. The warrant will not help much unfortunately. I would presume some sleazebag from Fresno County tipped her off not to come to California.The next step was to get federal help. Sadly, an assistant U.S. attorney in San Diego displayed his usual inept interest to handle child abduction cases and pointed his finger back to Fresno as the place with jurisdiction – although San Diego County accepted jurisdiction. So often, I hear or read about AUSAs having little concern about international child abduction cases because the U.S. Justice Department prioritizes this crime at the bottom of the totem pole.Desperate to bring Larry Jr. home, I seriously considered hiring a “recovery expert.” A couple of them called me, but demanded something like sixty or eighty thousand dollars up front with no guarantees. Yeah right, and I’ve got a bridge in Alaska to sell you too. One guy, who claimed to be a former CIA operative who graduated from the Citadel, said he rescued dozens of abducted children from other countries and he was willing to do my case for free (he said he had financial contacts to cover the costs). Now this loser was a real piece of cake. He instructed me not to mention my son’s name over the phone because the FBI and State Department had people watching me and tapping my phones for some unknown reason. That didn’t even make sense. I could not even get the FBI or State Department to take an interest in my case…and he said they were spying on me? Mr. CIA must of watched too many James Bond movies. Another loser, claiming to be a former CIA agent and a highly decorate retired military person in Burbank, CA, started a non-profit recovery agency. He told me stories of his rescues, ways how he could infiltrate Russia and bring my son out of there. He even trashed Mr. CIA by calling him a fraud. I checked up on this person – after learning the first time about such frauds – and received documents confirming this nutjob didn’t even make up through boot camp before being placed into mental institution. I remember your warnings about these kinds of people and should have listened. That would have spared the false hopes and, ultimately, painful let downs.Striking out with law enforcement and non-law enforcement, I aimed at trying to get help again from the Office of Children’s Issues by visiting Deputy Director Kathleen Ruckman and caseworker Elizabeth Cherry at their DC office. So many assurances and promises we’re made by these two. Cherry told me she would get the U.S. Marshals to enforce the state warrant. Ruckman promised to get upper officials like Assistant Secretary of State Maura Harty to speak to her Russian counterparts about my case. Their promises were as realistic as weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I asked the U.S. Marshals about the status of Cherry’s request; they responded in a letter they didn’t know who Elizabeth Cherry was and that OCI never mentioned my case to them. Ruckman probably never mentioned my case to her boss either, although Harty was well-established and disliked by many left-behind parent for being an incompetent bureaucrat. Harty never responded to my letters or calls about what transpired during talks about my son. I have serious doubts she raised the issue about my son to Russian officials knowing how aloof and unreliable these governmental pencil pushers can be at the State Department. Thank God she was forced to quit her job, but I am shocked the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children hired this hack. That’s like hiring George Bush to run the International Monetary Fund.Overall, I became angry after years of governmental mishandling, lies, and BS about our abducted children. Reports from the U.S. Government Accountability Office and U.S. Justice Department noted OCI was screwing up and the other resources to curb international parental abduction were dysfunctional. I knew I would never get my son back unless I managed to rewrite some rules that permitted agencies to remain inept and officials to linger in the halls doing nothing. I mean…come on…I’ve communicated with dozens and dozens of other parents about the lies and incompetence of OCI that’s cynically renamed the Office of Child Indifference. Even the U.S. Justice Department has some issues regarding their own incompetence. According to NCMEC, the Justice Department lacks experts in their Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS). That’s the division assigned to handle international parental abduction cases. Where’s the logic in this? That’s when I realized the only way to recover my son required the development of plans to build a way. For several years, I researched until I came up with enough facts and suggestions to create the PARENT Act (the Parental Abduction Recovery, Enforcement, and Network Training Act). The proposed bill was devised to correct this dysfunctional federal structure of resources mishandling parental abduction cases.After I made it known that I wanted Congress to tear OCI away from these cases, a new caseworker replaced Cherry’s mishandling of my case. Ruckman always praised Cherry’s work, but when I stated passing the bill around congressional offices, the deputy director got the hint that I would not remain docile; so it was best to hand my case over to someone responsible… and she did. Jamal Jones (and before him, Ryan Haley) has been outstanding and communicates with me every week. But I can’t say all the other parents are so fortunate with their caseworkers. OCI does not belong in the child abduction prevention business because their basement status within the State Department generates little assistance from divisions with higher rank. These divisions within DOS, such as the Russia Desk and Japan Desk, give OCI and the issues of parental abduction as much serious thought as using the urinal.That made me realize the only way to recover my son (as well as help other parents) is to press Congress into creating a DOJ division that will fight international parental abducted with greater effort. The State Department lacks the strength and power to do that. Do you think that the Synclair-Cannon Act has made a difference in prevention? Yes and no. After Fresno County revealed how useless county authorities protect children, and other parents in California complained about courts ignoring the potential threat of parental abduction, a friend encouraged me to write a bill that would aid in prevention. Mind you, I am a reporter, not a politician. Creating a bill was not on top of my agenda. I thought someone else could do that. But no one in Sacramento was stepping up to the plate to prevent our kids from being abducted to a foreign country. I wrote the Synclair-Cannon Act (named after my son and another abducted child, Shelby Cannon) with hope that courts in California would take that extra step of prevention, rather than pull a “Fresno County” and let a “sheriff” from a foreign city enforce an American custody order. I was surprised how quickly there was support for this bill.At that time, my bill was known as AB 2441 and it received much backing from the organizations such as the California District Attorneys Association, the California chapter to the National Organization for Women, the California Judges Association, and John Walsh – host of America’s Most Wanted. The bill would require a judge in a custody hearing to examine specified factors in determining the risk of parental abduction and consider imposing specified conditions to prevent the abduction of the child.The bill sailed through without a problem and the Synclair-Cannon Act became Family Code § 3048. Shortly afterwards, I received letters from parents and attorneys commenting how the new law prevented children from being sent to another country. It forced the courts to seek alternatives for kids to be raised in California by both parents, rather than allow them to go to another country and hope that abduction doesn’t take place. Parents in Texas examined the Synclair-Cannon Act and established a similar bill in Austin. I wish we had more parents like Teresa Lauderdale, Larry Whyte and others who persuaded state legislators to recognize the seriousness of the crime and implement ways of prevention. But, as in any state, there’s always some bad apples within the legal or law enforcement circles that can spoil protection for our kids.A few years ago, a few parents in California wrote to me about some idiot judges who read the Synclair-Cannon Act and refused to comply with the specific requirements within the law. This is why I am pushing hard for an improvement in educating our judges with the PARENT Act. If they had any idea about the harm caused when a child is abducted, judges would not have a detached attitude to prevention. There are many professional organizations in many states capable of teaching judges, attorneys, law enforcement officers, and other government entities how to see red flags of abduction and implement action to prevent it. But, we need the PARENT Act to provide that instruction so laws such as the Synclair-Cannon Act will not be ignored by these dimwitted judges. What projects are you involved in now? I am trying to find someone in Moscow who can act as a mediator and resolve my son’s abduction. I spoke to a few Moscow-based agencies but they don’t have the knowledge or concern about international parental abduction. Until I find someone reliable to look into bringing Larry Jr. home, I have been focusing on the PARENT Act with the help of several left-behind parents. It’s great to finally have some people in my corner. Thanks to these parents, we’ve raised the issue about the need of the PARENT Act to a few members of Congress. We’re hoping to hear word of sponsorship in light of the recent developments of the David Goldman case. As long as the State Department continues with its non-aggressive approach to speak whimsically about international parental abduction to their foreign counterparts and favor friendly diplomatic relations over demanding the return of our children, my friends and I will continue to yell loudly about this injustice.The PARENT Act offers definite solutions to help resolve past, present, and future acts of parental abduction. It proposes the following: 1) Restructure specific governmental offices to strengthen prompt and suitable action and assistance. According to a former New York Supreme Court justice, there’s an average of 10,000 children parentally abducted to a foreign country each year…yet the State Department prefers to “talk” to non-Hague Convention countries about joining. And let’s not forget about the signatories that ignore the Hague Convention as well. Because of the State Department’s passive attitude to recovering abducted American children, there are many cases that have dragged on until these children became adults. My son was kidnapped when he was four…now he’ll soon be fourteen! When he turns 16, OCI will closed the case. This illustrates that DOS does not truly focus on solving this problem; they prefer doing what they do best – talk, talk, and talk. The State Department tries to show they mean business by creating a human rights report, yet they never mention child abduction in their report although the U.S. Supreme Court and international law recognizes parental abduction as a violation of a fundamental human right. What a crock this report is! So we need to remove responsibility of handling abduction cases from the State Department, especially as central authority, and pass it to a proposed Justice Department division with a trained staff that handles only child abduction cases and prosecutes the accused under the international parental kidnapping crime act and other related laws. I checked out other countries and noticed they never assigned their version of the State Department (i.e. Foreign Affairs Ministry) to handle this crime. Their “Justice Departments” normally do. Clearly, we must have prosecutors and other attorneys deal with this…not diplomats. 2) Construct policies that will insist better enforcement of laws pertaining to this crime. The U.S. Justice Department also does not have a good record on handling international parental abduction; therefore, we need better policies that will insist on protection of our children and demand action to prosecute. All too often, assistant U.S. attorneys turn their back on abducted children. That has to stop.3) Develop greater distribution of educational programs about child abduction prevention in local areas that are weakest throughout the United States. I am not impressed with the way the federal government is trying to train judges, attorneys, counselors, and others about parental abduction. Millions of dollars have been dumped to a few resources that spread the word about the crime, how to assist left-behind parents, how to prevent the crime, and what kind of attention is needed for children if recovered. Sadly, they’ve barely made a dent. The crime continues to escalate, authorities continue to turn their backs on parental abduction, and left-behind parents continue to get little or no help to recover their kids. A portion of the funds that go to OCI should be transferred to other professional organizations, whether non-governmental or non-profit, who can spread the education around at a greater pace under a shorter time span. DOJ’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Program (OJJDP) has enough money and literature to educate many people about this crime, but they don’t take advantage of other available resources that can help educate others. The PARENT Act establishes a policy group to ensure a better process of educating our officials, as well as make sure our government agencies are doing their job regarding child abduction prevention.4) Identify the need for a parent and child relationship to have the recognized protection guaranteed in the U.S. constitution. This will eradicate any false perceptions within legal circles that this crime is merely “a civil matter.” There are so many governmental officials with a backward mentality that parental abduction is merely a custody issue. Those morons deserve a good slap in the face for that kind of brainless conclusion. Our judicial system, especially the U.S. Supreme Court, recognizes a parent-child relationship as a constitutionally protected right under the Fourteenth Amendment, as well as fundamental human right “far more precious than a property interest.” The PARENT Act defines this, clarifies the importance of this, and rids any mindless speculation that some dumbass assistant U.S. attorneys from San Diego to Philadelphia may have about international parental abduction being an insignificant crime. It also sends a clear message to our U.S. embassies that failure to act on this well-defined crime is an offense as well. Take a look at 18 USC § 242, which makes it a crime for a person acting under color of law to willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by our Constitution or laws of the United States. Fresno County falls smack into this area. Those are the main factors of the Act. There’s other little tidbits as well; but overall, the system that’s responsible for handling international parental abduction sucks. We, being the left-behind parents, family members, and friends of children abducted to another country need to raise some hell about this. I’ve also touched up on the Synclair-Cannon Act by writing a proposed amendment, but I haven’t found anyone to sponsor it. The new and improved version calls for courts to recognize a parent-child relationship as a constitutionally protected right. That’s needed so that some boneheaded official will not declare parental abduction as a mere civil matter that requires little attention. The amendment instructs judges to consider the risk of abduction, as well as obstacles to location, recovery, and return if the child is taken to another country, and whether a foreign country will cooperate with the enforcement of a custody order. In other words, if you have a country like Japan, Russia, or Syria that thumbs their noses to American custody orders and are a haven for abductors – then don’t send the child to these countries. Hague signatories like Mexico and Brazil are a gamble, so keep them children safe in the U.S. They have a right to be raised by both parents and shipping little Johnny or Jane to Egypt, Qatar, or the Philippines will destroy that right, not ensure it. How can parents and supporters help? Government officials won’t lift a finger unless the media gets wind of this, or – God forbid – one of their kids is parentally abducted to a foreign country.In regards to the PARENT Act, go to http://www.geocities.com/lsynclair/PARENT-Act.html. Details about the proposed bill are provided as .doc and .pdf. Then write to your representative and/or senator and ask that they sponsor it. NBC’s coverage of the Goldman case really lit a fire under Congress. That resulted in a resolution demanding the return of David Goldman’s son from Brazil, as well as Patrick Braden’s daughter who’s being held illegally in Japan. It also prompted a New Jersey congressman to take action and reunite Mr. Goldman with his son. I wish we had more members of Congress who could do the same for all the left-behind parents. I am still amazed that our congressional representatives get angry and spend millions of dollars to prevent international video privacy; but when it comes to the thousands and thousands of American children abducted to a foreign country each year, our elected officials remain mostly silent and our federal agencies close their doors.A good example of getting an elected official to make some needed changes involves the importance to impose rules for the embassies. Brett Weed, an Oregon parent with two children abducted to Japan, told me about the indifference that the U.S. embassy in Tokyo has regarding international child abduction. The embassy is promoting an attorney on their Web site that’s responsible for convincing the Japanese court to support the abduction of American children. Can you imagine how shocking it must have been for Patrick Braden, Carl Hillman, and Walter Benda when they saw the name of that sleazy attorney on embassy Web site? This is the same bastard who represented the abductors in court and, in turn, destroyed the parental rights of these three fathers. The State Department really needs to grow some cajones and start supporting American parents, not assist people in child abduction. Congress needs to backup parents of abducted children and tell DOS to grow a pair. If you could send a message to all abducted children (as a left-behind parent) what would that be? Just thinking about that, in conjunction to my son…I have yet to come up with the words of assurance – only hope.To any child in a country outside the United States wondering what happened to their mother or father in the U.S., I hope you will believe that your mom or dad loves and misses you dearly. If someone tells you different, please do not believe it. I can assure you that your mom or dad is thinking about you every day and wishes you were home. Please be strong and think positive – eventually you will be back. Search the Internet and email your wishes to come home to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the FBI, or someone with an email address. Don’t be afraid to write, because I promise you that your mom and dad are praying for any letter from you. If you could send a message to all left behind parents, what would that be? There’s the old saying: when solving problems, dig at the roots instead of hacking at the leaves. First, focus on you. That means be strong, get pissed off mad, and use that anger into constructive energy. I think I got that from you, Maureen. Parents should never fall into a bottle or depend on drugs to ease your pain. Don’t envision the world coming to an end and that you don’t see a purpose in life without your kids. My message to left-behind parents is to never give up. Your kids wouldn’t want you to give up on them; so clench your fists and start swinging away. But, you also must expect a long fight. I’ve been battling these idiots in Washington for years and little progress has been made on resolving my son’s abduction. But, I will never give up looking for my son – in fact I plan on being a pain-in-the-ass to those who those who turn their backs on him. Because of my persistence, some officials are listening to me now while many others continue to drag their feet.I am so impressed with left-behind parents who refuse to give up: Benda, McClain, Melchishua, Sylvester, Berger, Marinkovich, Shannon, Weed, Alciati, Mitchell, Braden, Roush, Toland…my God, those names are just a drop in bucket of the many parents who took a stance and fought for their kids. Some have managed to see their kids, a few have them back home, others have not seen their children since they were taken away. But these parents continue fighting. First and foremost, work on getting yourself mentally and physically prepared to raise some hell. These parents did, they still do, and you should too.Next, we need to seriously get some unity going. We all have the same problem regarding abduction, but we are beating our own drum at different rhythms and sounding like a mess. I know we have obligations at work, home, and so on. Finances are probably tight for many, so attending rallies or conferences is not always possible. But you can make phone calls, write letters, use the Internet, and spread the word about need for prevention. Remember that the problem of preventing our children from being abducted to foreign countries stems from ignorance within local, state, and federal governments. To change that, we have to aim at the source and correct it immediately. That’s what parents did in Texas, and a bill on child abduction became law. We need to tell those in the government, these official who can make a difference, to improve the chances of bringing our kids home.That’s why we need the PARENT Act to become reality. It removes the State Department’s mishandling of this escalating crime and brings it to a newly establish and trained division with strict orders to provide prevention, prosecution, and a better philosophy on finding answers. Can parents contact you? If so, please provide contact information. Parents can contact me for information, but I prefer to communicate via email. Years ago, I gave out my phone number and I became inundated with many grieving parents needing to vent their pain. I do understand their pain and, for hours, I’d sit and listen to left-behind parents for hours. Ironically, I remember pouring out my misery over the phone to you when my son was abducted, Maureen. But I don’t have that kind of time anymore and prefer having left-behind parents write to me. Besides, writing is great form of therapy and I encourage left-behind people to get a journal and write down their thoughts, their pain, and their ideas. They can also write to me for information such as for legal research, networking, or sharing ideas. I can be reached at lsynclair@yahoo.com.