Posted on 01/29/2014 9:19:13 AM PST by Kaslin
YouTube Video
Today Tonight : World Exclusive: The story of Savanna Todd
At age 20, Samantha Geldenhuys learned some shocking news. And "shocking" is probably an understatement for describing the discovery: The beloved mother who'd raised her was also her kidnapper and had been wanted by authorities for nearly two decades.
Shortly after losing custody of the little girl in a South Carolina court, Dorothy Barnett kidnapped her daughter in 1994, taking her on a journey across four continents, and sparking a case that soon became one of the biggest child-abduction mysteries in U.S. history. The story was back in the media spotlight in November 2013, when Samantha and her mom were tracked down in Australia and Barnett was arrested. But until Monday night, the world had not heard from Samantha, née Savanna Todd, who spoke in an exclusive interview with Australian news show “Today Tonight.” In the broadcast, she says she is firmly on her mother's side.
(Excerpt) Read more at shine.yahoo.com ...
Obviously this all depends on what the father did or did not do, and they don’t bring that up in the article. Useless piece.
Regardless of the details of this case, I think it’s become far too easy for courts to separate children from their parents.
I think this is a case of what difference does it make? The girl is now a young woman capable of making her own choices. Until time travel is invented nothing can be changed.
typically these are child custody cases where the mother lost custody AFTER an evidentiary hearing. For a father to recieve custody is overwhelmingly difficult given the institutional bias against fathers.
oh, I thought mothers ALWAYS get custody...this story can not possibly be true....
The video link/clip has a lot more detail albeit it is long. If(and I emphasize the word “if”) the story is true... the woman did the right thing by running. She was keeping her baby safe. The birth father tried to portray his ex wife as bipolar and had a violent history... that is truly proven untrue by the words of her daughter. She seems like a remarkable, intelligent young woman.
Watched the whole thing...hope justice is done. Based on what I heard the daughter say, the neighbor and friend say, and the father’s response, justice would be to drop the charges against the mother. The father is the one who should be put away; too bad that will never happen.
JMO
Amen to that.
Typical of "agenda writing."
The OP included a link to youtube video that contains far more information than the article.
Pretty much puts the lie to the claims that the kidnapping mother was mentally ill or bi-polar.
all those years, the mother searched....eventually went to college and is now a noted professor at the Uof Virginia....
when the girls were discovered finally 20 yrs later, they were poisoned against their mother, who suffers from narolepsy....
and what did daddy dearest get as punishment?....200 hrs community service and a fine,IIRC....
we'll see in this case what mom gets...
Good.
Though youtube ISN'T the end-all of information. It'll do, just like the rest of the Internet.
Also, and this might be impossible for you to believe, but SOME people SOME times LIE like a rug. (Humor)
They generally get custody unless the mom is a drug addict, felon, other otherwise demonstratively unfit.
Mom was seriously bipolar, and acted sufficiently nuts at the custody hearing that the judge awarded custody to dad.
The mom has to be an undeniable danger to the safety of the kid to not get custody, if she wants custody.
From the followup article:
He went into hiding, to escape what he called her endless tirades and threats. Sometimes, he slept in his car.Maybe the mom got treated after fleeing to Australia, but she must have behaved truly strangely in the courtroom for the judge to give custody to the dad.'I was on the run from her, hiding out at friends' houses. She'd drive around all night, looking for me, and sometimes she'd find me. She'd stand outside the house and scream that she was going to kill herself.'
Barnett was diagnosed with manic depression - now largely classified as bi-polar disorder - but refused to get treatment, so Todd commenced custody proceedings, which carried over after the birth of Savanna.
Barnett's lawyer, Mendell Rivers, said Barnett's 'tragic lack of self-control' in the court room lead the judge to believe the accusations were true.
I have been there and it is brutal. Lost in court twice. The third time my son was old enough to speak in court. She knew the game was over and it never went to court. She signed the papers.
He said, she said. His psychologist said she was nuts, her psychologists said she wasn’t. I truly believe if she was nutty as a fruitcake, it would have emerged during the twenty years since her disappearance. From her daughter’s own words and the words of her friends.. she was kind and never had a mental issue. Thus, the husband and one shrink said she was crazy. How could the courts ignore her? Not sure.. perhaps since the husband was an upstanding financial guy that pulled a lot of weight. Either way, we read everyday that some woman left her kids with abusive men or throw them in trash cans. This woman left her family, home, friends and country to protect her baby daughter after the child was injured (and no good reason as to why). If she did leave to protect her.. good for her.
Ah me, the defilement of our language thanks to P.C. I miss the old days.
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