A Texas father has finally been reunited with his 3-year-old daughter after a tumultuous five months of alleged abduction by his ex-wife. This heart-wrenching ordeal unfolded as a result of a bitter divorce that took an unexpected turn.
According to ValleyCentral, Rilee Crouch, who is now 4 years old, was reunited with her father Dakota Crouch on Sunday. The child and her mother, Lillian Crouch, were located in Panama and subsequently located.
On July 2, Dakota returned Rilee to her mother’s home for custodial visitation on South Padre Island, a resort beach town about 20 miles from the Mexico border.
When Dakota came back to pick up his daughter a few days later, the pair had disappeared.
The state argued on Monday that Lillian is accused of taking Rilee into Mexico, where she holds dual citizenship, before fleeing into Central America and Europe.
Dakota insisted that he couldn’t get in touch with Lillian and that she failed to appear at their court hearings throughout the custody dispute.
“Her phone goes straight to voicemail,” Dakota told the outlet in August. “Her own counsel withdrew from the case because she was unable to get a hold of her. The counselor involved in the case wasn’t able to get her to appear and kept giving her excuses.”
He made a public plea for his daughter to be safely returned to Texas.
“This was the third go-around of times that she has denied me visitations,” Dakota added. “She had already been warned by the judge to please stop this and this time it has taken a turn for the worse.”
In December, Lillian and Rilee reportedly traveled to Turkey, but they were denied entry after authorities identified that their passports were fraudulent.
Texas officials have the belief that Lillian attempted to escape to “war-torn” Israel with the toddler upon their arrival in Turkey.
After being compelled to leave the United States, the 29-year-old mother found herself back in Central America. She arrived in Panama with neither a visa nor a US passport to facilitate her journey back home.
According to the state, Lillian and her uncle reportedly spent two days walking around the Panama airport with Rilee, as they were not allowed to leave. This situation put the child in several risky situations during the suspected abduction.
Lillian and Rilee were located by US Marshals and brought back to Texas, where she was subsequently arrested.
According to the Port Isabel-South Padre Press, Dakota and Lillian were married for less than three years before getting divorced in 2022.
According to the PISPS, Lillian’s visitation and access to Rilee were suspended by a Texas judge three weeks after she allegedly fled the US.
On August 19th, Dakota was awarded full custody.
According to Lillian’s lawyer, the alleged abduction on South Padre Island was rooted in a “domestic issue arising from a troubled divorce.”
She will be placed on house arrest and will be required to wear an electronic monitoring device. The state had initially requested a bond of $1 million, but the judge reduced it to $110,000.