By AMY BENNETT WILLIAMS • This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it • February 1, 2009 

Arianna Rice has spent four of her five birthdays in an industrial Mexican city with people who aren't related to her.

Kathleen Rice can barely talk about it without crying.

"She's somewhere she shouldn't be with people she doesn't belong with," Rice says, her voice breaking. "I love her. She just needs to be home."


Rice, 48, and her husband Kenneth, 44, Arianna's father, are waging an international battle to bring the Lee County-born girl back to the United States.

So far, they're losing.


Like the Rices, Arianna's mother, Michelle Flores, 28, is an American-born citizen. In 2005, Flores, who had married a Mexican, took Arianna and Arianna's half-brother, Anthony, to Mexico.

A few days later, Flores returned to the United States without the children. They've been in Guanajuato ever since.