 I am the desperate mother of two missing children. Tammy 4, and Diego 3, who were abducted on October 2007 by their abusive non-custodial father. Francisco Flores, pretends to be a loving father, but is obsessive and becomes crazy and violent when things don't go his way. I was married to him for eight years. The situation became intolerable due to domestic violence. I was physically, emotionally and psychologically abused by my husband. In November 2006 I decided to leave home to protect my children and my self and went to live to a domestic violence shelter. For almost a year I lived terrified. I was harassed and stalked by my ex-husband and strangers hired by him. I was afraid he would kill me, with the hate he had for me for leaving his control. He slandered me to obtain shared custody, I was falsely accused of everything, humiliated and insulted by his family whio harassed me with cameras. I had to get a confidential address at the California Safe at Home Program for abuse victims, but the nightmare was just beginning. The Abduction of My Children On October 21 2007 at 5 pm, I took my children to the Ontario Police Station to leave them with their father for visitation. They had a cold and I was very worried. I called Francisco that night to see if they were getting well. He said he had to take them to the Emergency Room and said they had a virus. On Monday October 22, I called him again to see how they were doing, and he said they were not getting better and he would take them to the doctor again. After that his phone was turned off. On Tuesday October 23, his phone remained off. I called his company cell phone and left messages that were never returned. On Wednesday October 24, I called the police in Victorville, CA to verify if my children were where they supposed to be and there was no answer at the door. The police officer located one of his sisters and she said she was going to locate him and tell him to call me but he never did. Then I realized that Francisco had left and took my children far away. I kept insistently calling. On Thursday October 25, I called his mother, and asked her where my children and Francisco were and she said crying she didn’t know where they were and hung up. The police officers tried to locate him once again and found nothing. In the police station they said I should go and look for my children. I let them know he was a violent man and so was his family and they offered me escort. On Friday October 26, I went to Victorville with a police officer. Luz Maria; sister of Francisco and the one in charge of taking care of my children said that she didn’t know where they were. Soon after, Celia his mother, arrived yelling and blaming me for what had happened. We left to maintain peace and I was unable to file a report because I made to wait until Sunday, the day I was supposed to receive my children back. On Sunday the 28th, I went to the Ontario police station hoping this was just another agony Francisco wanted to cause me but they never returned. I made a police report but nothing happened because they said I needed full custody. On October 31 2007, I went to court and got full legal and physical custody. The District Attorney was ordered to locate and return the children to me. I filed a missing persons report at the Ontario Police Station. During his investigations, the investigator assigned at the San Bernardino District Attorney, Child Abduction Unit, let me know that Francisco left his job weeks before leaving with the kids. He refinanced our house and took all the money in cash as well as other accounts that I was unfamiliar with. He also sold the car in anticipation and concluded that Francisco had prepared everything well in advance and that his family was not cooperating with the investigation. I filed a Hague Convention application but recently I knew it was sent to the Mexican Authorities after almost a year. On January 18 2008, a felony warrant for kidnapping was issued to the abductor Francisco Flores by the San Bernardino District Attorney, Child Abduction Unit and the FBI was called to investigate the case. The FBI Agent was completely indifferent to my concerns and told me that my children were in Mexico and the case was closed. He told me that parental abduction is not a crime in Mexico and the Mexican Government was protecting the abductor as a Mexican citizen, and the FBI couldn’t do anything. The agent gave the same reasons to my psychologist Dr. Christopher Deulen when he requested an answer. I contacted the Mexican Authorities and Mexican Justice Department and requested they file charges for parental abduction, as it turned out, parental kidnapping is, in fact, a crime in Mexico. The agent told me he had gotten addresses for some of the abductor’s relatives in Mexico and and said he would share that information with me. I called him daily to get an appointment but he was never available and it was postponed for months until I lost my hope. However, he always assured he was going to give me that information. It caused me too much suffering and frustration because he had valuable information for the investigation. He made me lose my time and money and made me focus on Mexico for my children's whereabouts. He didn’t care about my requests and simply ignored me. Furthermore, he called me and told me to go to Mexico because all Francisco's family were going on vacation to Cancun and they could be meeting Francisco and my children there. I think this was just to distract me and make me waste my time. Mexican Authorities have made efforts to locate them but there have little information or clues. There’s no evidence to date that they are actually in Mexico. Recently the Case Manager at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children called the FBI agent regarding some clues in the United States and asked him why the case is closed. He explained that it is closed if the children are in Mexico but it is open if they are in the United States. It is my conclusion that he didn’t know where my children were but he guaranteed they were in Mexico without any evidence to support his statements just to stop working in my case. I contacted several associations at the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children, Find the Children, Vanished Children, Child Find of America and the Asociacion Mexicana de Ninos Robados y Desaparecidos in Mexico to spread my children's and the abductor’s photographs. Posters were disseminated in Mexico and the United States. My case manager from NCMEC told me about information given from people. But nothing happened and the detectives from the Ontario Police don't return my phone calls or e-mails. I contacted TV shows and news programs, but there’s not much support for missing children. Must I wait until the abductor does seriously harm to me or my children? I am also waiting for an answer from America's Most Wanted. On October 2008 I made a complaint to Senator Barbara Boxer and she answered that she was going to seriously help me and I sent my case to her caseworkers. On March 2, 2009, I called and they informed me they got reports from District Attroney and the US Departement of State regarding what they have done and the results of their investigations but they are still awaiting an answer from the FBI. One year and four months after the disappearance, there is not a trace. I am very concerned fo my children's physical, emotional and psychological well-being. They are so young and deserve to have their mother who loves them and lives just for them. I still wait for their safe return and pray that one day justice will prevail. I have recently regained confidence in myself after the domestic violence therapies and psychological treatment for my depression that is normal in these situations. I am managing my stress by working out really hard and going to prayer groups as well as volunteering in my church. I am planning to return to school and switching mayors from accounting to be a children's social worker. I know when my children return I will be a strong woman able to fight for their well-being and help them heal all the damage that the separation has done to us. POSTER http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewPoster&caseNum=1082616&orgPrefix=NCMC&searchLang=en_US WEB PAGE http://encuentramisbebes.hi5.com
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Tammy and Diego
