Sabrina Allen, a Texas girl allegedly kidnapped by her noncustodial mother 12 years ago, was recovered safely Tuesday in Mexico, and her mother was arrested there, said Dan Powers, San Antonio FBI assistant special agent in charge.
The mother, Dara Marie Llorens, has been deported to Travis County, Texas, where she will face charges, and Sabrina will be reunited with her father, Powers said.
The girl is now 17, and her mother, 44, the FBI said.
Sabrina Allen is currently in the care of a clinical psychologist, according to her her father, Greg Allen.
Allen, who remarried 10 years ago and has a new family, has yet to see his daughter who is suffering from emotional trauma, he said.
“I haven’t gotten to see her yet,” Greg Allen told reporters on Wednesday. “She’s in pretty bad shape, from my understanding,” he said, becoming tearful.
“She’s been told I’m a bad guy, that I’m a wife beater” and other accusations that are also false, he said. “She’s just not ready to see me and my family. I hope and pray that’s coming soon and I can’t predict it.”
He described the 12-year search for his daughter as a roller coaster that involved false leads and unsuccessful tips over the years.
“I was Ahab and the white whale. I was not going to survive,” Greg Allen said. “It’s a long road. You don’t know what the outcome is.”
How the disappearance occurred
Llorens allegedly violated a court-ordered child custody agreement and disappeared with her Austin daughter shortly after taking her on April 19, 2002, during a scheduled weekend visit, the FBI said in its wanted bulletin for Llorens.
She failed to return her daughter to her father, the primary guardian, during a scheduled pickup two days later, the FBI said.
Later that month, a Texas warrant was issued for Llorens, accusing her of interference with child custody, and then a federal warrant was issued in May 2002, charging Llorens with unlawful flight.
The mother and daughter were found in Mexico City in June 2003 under the fake names of Blanca Aurora Fabian Uribe and Adriana Fabian Uribe, but they eluded authorities, according to the website the girl’s father created to seek public help in finding Sabrina.
The girl’s hair was cut, and her hair color was changed several times during her disappearance, the website said.
– CNN’s Justin Lear and Marylynn Ryan contributed to this report.
