Father seeks international help to find children
By JILLIAN DUCHNOWSKI - jduchnowski@nwherald.com
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| Sonia Leon De Carol ( ()) |
WOODSTOCK – The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children issued fliers Thursday for two children whose mother did not bring them back last week from a trip to Mexico, police said.
Police issued a $10,000 warrant for child abduction for Sonia Leon De Carol, 42, of the Cary area. McHenry County Judge Suzanne Mangiamele gave her permission to take James, 4, and Andrea, 5, to Mexico after presenting a new one-year lease, her parents’ contact number in Mexico, and a printed itinerary.
The children’s father had objected to the trip in May because he said Leon De Carol’s lease was about to expire and she had liquidated assets.
She is a permanent legal U.S. resident originally from Mexico and had in the past threatened to take the children permanently to her homeland.
Sheriff’s police had referred the case to federal authorities.
“We have an idea of where she is in Mexico, but nothing’s been confirmed yet,” sheriff’s Detective Jennifer Garafol said Thursday afternoon, adding that Leon De Carol’s family owned property there.
The children’s father, James Carol, plans to ask Mangiamele for permanent custody of the two children July 10 if they have not returned by then, said his attorney, Robert Medansky. Medansky is preparing documents needed to enforce the local custody order internationally through the Hague Abduction Convention.
But if Leon de Carol appears in court with the children, her ex-husband doesn’t plan to use the extended vacation to gain a better custody arrangement, Medansky said. The father has visitation twice a week plus every other weekend, on top of daily phone access, Medansky said.
“My client can live with that as long as his kids are brought back and he can have regular contact with them,” Medansky said. “If she shows up on July 10 and has the kids with her, I will not feel like I have lost a thing if the judge puts everything back the way it was.”
Leon de Carol and the children were set to land in Mexico City on June 6 and return June 26. Medansky said in court documents that he notified Leon de Carol’s attorney June 5 and June 16 that the contact number she provided in Mexico was not working. Leon De Carol’s attorney, Karen Mensching, did not return a call for comment Thursday.
Sheriff’s police began investigating Monday and discovered that Leon De Carol had canceled a lease she presented in court June 3 two days after she signed it May 27.
Carol has exchanged a few e-mails with his ex-wife, and the last one, received last weekend, indicated that the children were all right, Medansky said. Carol’s son is autistic and was supposed to start a summer special education program this week.
Medansky said Leon de Carol had given every indication that she didn’t plan to return the children so they could see their father.
“What’s tragic is [the children] are young enough that she could convince them that he doesn’t exist anymore,” Medansky said.
But his client doesn’t blame the judge, Medansky said. He said Carol believed that the judge weighed the various considerations she had at the time, including the fact that Leon De Carol had several personal belongings here and had lived in the United States for about five years with a teenage daughter.
