A Texas father has been reunited with his 3-year-old daughter, who was allegedly kidnapped by his ex-wife and has been flying around the world for the past five months due to a “botched divorce.”
Riley Crouch, now 4, and her mother, Lillian Crouch, were tracked down in Panama and handed over to her father, Dakota Crouch, on Sunday. According to Valley Central.
Dakota last saw Riley on July 2, when she returned the infant to her mother's home for a protective visitation on South Padre Island, a resort beach town about 20 miles from the Mexican border. It was.
A few days later, when Dakota returned to pick up her daughter, the two disappeared.
Lillian is accused of taking Riley, who has dual citizenship, to Mexico before fleeing to Central America and Europe. The state argued Monday.
Dakota claimed that she could not contact Lillian and that Lillian did not show up to court hearings during the custody battle.
“Her phone goes straight to voicemail,” Dakota told the outlet in August. “Her own lawyer withdrew from the case because she couldn't get in touch with her. The counselors involved in the case couldn't get her to appear in court and kept giving her excuses.”
He publicly begged for his daughter's safe return to Texas.
“This is the third time she has refused to meet with me,” Dakota added. “She had already been warned by a judge not to do this, but this time things got worse.”
In December, Lilian and Riley flew to Turkey but were allegedly turned away after authorities realized their passports were forged.
Texas authorities believe Lilian was attempting to flee to “war-torn” Israel with her toddler when she arrived in Turkey.
The 29-year-old mother was forced to be deported to Central America and landed in Panama without a visa or U.S. passport to return.
The state alleged that Lilian and her uncle were not allowed to leave the country, so they spent two days wandering around a Panama airport with Lilly, putting the child in “endangerment in several situations” in the kidnapping charges.
Federal marshals found Lillian and Riley and escorted them to Texas, where she was arrested.
Dakota and Lillian divorced in 2022 after less than three years of marriage. According to Port Isabel South Padre Press.
Three weeks after Lillian allegedly fled the United States, a Texas judge blocked her from seeing and visiting Riley, PISPS reported.
Dakota was granted full custody on August 19th.
Lillian's lawyer told South Padre Island Municipal Court on Monday that the kidnapping charge revolves around “domestic issues related to a failed divorce.”
She will be placed under house arrest and fitted with an electronic monitoring device. The state requested that her bail be set at $1 million, but a judge reduced it to $110,000.
