Utah Doomsday Mom ARRESTED, Kids Trapped in Orphanage in Croatia | Elleshia Seymour Update
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Summary
Takeaways
- ❖Alicia Seymour, a Utah mother, allegedly abducted her four children to Croatia based on doomsday prophecies and forged passports.
- ❖The children were found in Croatia after a 13-year-old boy, Cage, living with Seymour, discovered international headlines about their disappearance.
- ❖Alicia Seymour was arrested, and her children, along with Cage, were placed in a Croatian 'family center' described as an orphanage with low standards.
- ❖The children's father and aunt are in Croatia, allowed only two hours of visitation daily, facing significant language barriers and legal complexities.
- ❖The case is unprecedented, with no clear legal procedures or timeline from Croatian authorities, causing immense financial and emotional strain on the family.
- ❖The family has initiated a GoFundMe ('Abducted Kids, Help Us Get Them Back') to cover expenses and future counseling for the children.
Insights
1Abysmal Conditions in Croatian 'Family Center'
The children are housed in a Croatian 'family center,' a euphemism for an orphanage, where the quality of care is described as 'abysmal.' Conditions include limited communication due to language barriers, unmonitored access to YouTube for entertainment, and a policy of communal clothing where personal items are stolen or randomly redistributed after washing. The children are not consistently told to shower daily and often wear dirty clothes.
Jill Seymour states, 'the quality of care that they're receiving is abysmal and would never hold up in any state of care in America.' She details issues like 'unmonitored access to YouTube,' theft of personal items, and clothes being randomly dispersed after laundry.
2Bureaucratic Maze for Child Repatriation
Despite the father having US custody orders and the mother being arrested, repatriating the children from Croatia is a complex, unprecedented process. The case has moved from local police to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with no clear legal procedures or timeline. The US Embassy acts primarily as a liaison, unable to intervene directly in local laws.
Jill Seymour explains, 'everybody you talk to, from the embassy, the FBI to Croatian authorities here, everybody says, 'Well, this has never happened before.' So, this is unprecedented. They don't know exactly what the law and what the procedures are.' The case was transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requiring further diplomatic engagement.
3Children's Resilience and Disbelief in Doomsday Prophecies
The older children (11, 8, 7) were intelligent enough to disbelieve their mother's doomsday prophecies and conspiracy theories (e.g., COVID vaccine turning people into zombies). Their primary misconception was believing their father knew their whereabouts and had given permission for the trip, not that they were actively being sought.
Jill Seymour states, 'they never believed anything that their mom was telling them that didn't make sense.' She adds, 'all of her doomsday things they did not believe in.' The children only believed 'that she had dad's permission or that their dad knew where they were.'
4Heroic Role of 13-Year-Old 'Cage'
The children were located thanks to a 13-year-old boy named Cage, who lived with Alicia Seymour and the other American woman in Croatia. Cage Googled one of the abducted children's names, discovered the international headlines about their disappearance, and alerted his mother, who then turned Alicia Seymour and the children over to the police. Cage is now also in the same Croatian 'family center' as the Seymour children, with no known biological family in America to claim him.
The host explains, 'Cage in speaking with these four kids that just arrived in his home as visitors learned about the identities of the children and had the wherewithal to Google them and discovered there are massive headlines back in America.' Jill Seymour confirms, 'he googled Levi's name... and found all the news articles in the states and sent those articles to his mom and then he sent them in a group text to his mom and to Alicia.'
Lessons
- Support the Seymour family's GoFundMe, 'Abducted Kids, Help Us Get Them Back,' organized by Kendall Seymour, to assist with their financial burden and future counseling for the children.
- If you are a parent, apply for the US government's passport alert service. This system notifies you if another party attempts to apply for a passport for your child, providing a crucial safeguard against abduction.
- Share this story and the GoFundMe link on social media to raise awareness and garner support for the family and the children trapped in Croatia.
Notable Moments
The children's aunt describes the emotional toll of daily goodbyes after only two hours of visitation, noting it causes 'quite a lot of trauma' for the kids.
This highlights the severe emotional distress experienced by the children, who are constantly reminded of their temporary situation and separation from their family, despite being with their father and aunt.
The family is attempting to provide basic necessities and educational materials like English books and games, but items are frequently stolen by other children in the center.
This illustrates the challenging environment of the Croatian facility and the difficulties in providing a stable, enriching environment for the children, even with family present and actively trying to help.
The three-year-old, Jacob, has the hardest time understanding why he needs to wait, believing each visit is an opportunity to go home.
This underscores the vulnerability of the youngest child, who cannot grasp the complexities of the situation, making the separation and uncertainty particularly traumatic for him.
Quotes
"It doesn't matter that it's dad. It doesn't matter that there's uh you know allegations of the law being broken that Alicia has been arrested and is in custody in Croatia. No, it is such a bigger mess of red tape, diplomacy, state department issues, court issues both in America and in Croatia and they're trying to sort through it all."
"The biggest concern we have is um with sharing information with them is we want to share as accurate information as we can at a child level, but at the same time they have been lied to for the last 2 months um by their mom. And so we don't want to come across like we're withholding anything from them."
"Everybody you talk to, um, from the embassy, the FBI to Croatian authorities here, everybody says, 'Well, this has never happened before.' So, this is unprecedented. They don't know exactly what um what the law and what the procedures are. So, I really believe that that's the reason this is taking so long."
"The quality of care that they're receiving um is is abysmal and would never hold up um in any state of of care in America. Um the only activity the kids have is unmonitored access to YouTube."
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