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A Utah mother obsessed with doomsday prophecies has been arrested overseas after allegedly kidnapping her four young children and abandoning them at an orphanage in Croatia, sparking an international legal battle to bring the children home.
Elleshia Anne Seymour, 35, was taken into custody in Dubrovnik, Croatia, on Jan. 16, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office confirmed to Fox News Digital. Prosecutors say they are now working with federal partners to explore extradition options, though no timeline has been announced.
Seymour faces four counts in Utah of child molestation, all third-degree felonies, after authorities say she removed her children without their father’s consent and failed to return them for court visitation.
Officials say Seymour boarded a flight from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam on Nov. 29 before continuing on to Croatia with the children. Investigators suspect the deadline for her to return the children to their father “has long since passed,” and both fathers told police they never consented to the children leaving the state or the country.
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Seymour’s children are shown in a family photo with her ex-husband, Kendall Seymour. Authorities say the children were found at an orphanage in Croatia after being taken abroad by their mother. (GoFundMe)
According to Kendall Seymour, who is a father of three children, the family did not realize that the children were missing until days had passed and they had been taken overseas.
“On Sunday, Nov. 30, my ex-wife flew to Europe, kidnapped my three children and her fourth child from another father,” Seymour wrote in his first GoFundMe post. “We didn’t learn until Tuesday, December 2, that someone was missing.”
Court records show that a non-bailable arrest warrant was issued in December after prosecutors said Seymour posed a flight risk and a danger to her children.
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The photos show the missing Seymour children next to a different picture of their mother. Authorities say the children were allegedly taken from their mother and found in an orphanage in Croatia. (GoFundMe)
According to charging documents, police later found Seymour’s apartment unlocked and abandoned, his car parked at Salt Lake City International Airport, and a brochure about disposal plans for phones and documents. Kendall Seymour said his ex-wife allegedly forged the children’s passports and left what he described as a hoax saying he received a message from God promising he would be in Italy for Christmas.
He also said police found a handwritten to-do list that included instructions to “shred the papers,” “destroy identification,” “get rid of the phone,” and “buy a prepaid phone.”
In a voicemail left for Kendall Seymour days after she disappeared, Elleshia Seymour, who was allegedly in France, said she needed to get the children out because the “end times” were coming, according to police.
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Kendall Seymour is shown with her children in an undated family photo taken before the alleged abduction. (GoFundMe)
The children were eventually found in Croatia and placed in a state orphanage.
Now, Kendall Seymour has flown to Europe in a desperate attempt to bring them home.
In the update of Jan. 25 sent to the GoFundMe campaign, Seymour said the children are still trapped in Croatia at a state-run orphanage as he tries to secure their release from state custody.
“We are in the country, trying to get the children out of the hands of the local government,” he wrote, adding that the family was forced to hire Croatian lawyers who specialize in international child abduction cases, apply under the Hague Convention, pay for court-approved translators, and extend their stay overseas indefinitely.
Seymour said the fundraiser’s original goal had already been eaten up by travel costs alone and warned that future costs – including medical expenses – were not yet known.
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“Who knows how much money will be needed to treat the five of us, after all this is over,” he wrote.
He also revealed that the fifth American child, who was traveling with Seymour and his children, was kept in the same orphanage. That child has not been publicly identified, and Seymour said his legal situation is “more complicated,” requiring additional legal strategy and assistance.
Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicide and immigration crime. Send news tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.
