Mother Finds Abducted Children Through Facebook Years Later

SoCal Mother Finds Abducted Children Through Facebook Years Later

By Clarissa Wei, Thursday, Jun. 3 2010 @ 3:58PM

​A San Bernardino mother found her teenage children, abducted by their father when they were 2- and 3-years-old, through a Facebook search, it was recently revealed. The woman said that her husband, Faustino Utera, disappeared with the children in 1995. He had allegedly told her that he had taken them to Mexico and that she would never see them again,according to KTLA News.

The mother found her children in March after searching their names on Facebook and finding a picture that looked like her daughter. After 'friending' and talking to her daughter, the mother immediately contacted the office of San Bernardino Deputy District Attorney Kurt Rowley. Shortly thereafter, Utrera was arrested in Central Florida on suspicion of kidnapping and violating child custody orders.

Experts told KTLA that getting reacquainted would be difficult for the mother and children, who are now 17 and 18.

"You don't have that immediate joyful reunification. If in fact that is what will progress, it will take time," Carrie Hoeppner of the Department and Children and Families said. "These children will have to build a relationship, and that is something that will not happen overnight."

Following the arrest of their father, the teens were placed in the custody of authorities before the mother was eventually granted custody
.