Police find Espoo girl who was abducted by father 11 years ago
Custody disputes in mixed marriages biggest cause of such cases
Nadia Bouteldja, missing for more than eleven years since she was kidnapped from Espoo, has been found in Luxembourg. Nadia was abducted by her Algerian father in May 1997, when she was nine years old.
The young woman met with her mother and Finnish police representatives at the Finnish Embassy in Luxembourg in July. The meeting lasted a couple of hours, but the kidnap victim would only exchange a few words with the police officers, apparently showing a considerable degree of suspicion towards them.
Police got on the track of Bouteldja some two years ago, when the girl came of age and contacted her mother by e-mail. This led to a two-year correspondence.
“The entire e-mail correspondence was marked by suspicions of the authorities. Our task was to instil the sort of confidence that would allow such a meeting to take place”, said Det. Insp. Jukka Kaski of the Espoo Police.
Eventually agreement was reached on a date for a meeting. The police were nevertheless in the dark as to where the reunion would take place.
Just two days before mother and daughter were scheduled to get together, information came that Bouteldja would meet her visitors in Luxembourg.
She arrived alone, and would not disclose to police any details of the abduction, of what had happened in the intervening eleven years, or even of her current abode.
Police believe that Bouteldja lives in Luxembourg. They do not believe she is any longer the victim of a crime.
Her father, who was working in Finland in the IT sector, grabbed the nine-year-old from her home and took her away in a car.
The parents were divorced and the girl’s mother had been granted custody of the child.
It is believed that the pair drove to Sweden, taking the long route via Haaparanta in Northern Finland.
The car was found abandoned in Luleå, Sweden, some two months later.
The most recent confident sighting of the missing father and daughter was in Britain later in that same May of 1997.
Espoo police officers were in contact with the father’s family in Algeria.
An international warrant was put out all over the world, and hints and possible sightings were checked out from as far away as Tahiti and Mexico.
The criminal investigation into aggravated abduction was closed in 2007 after the ten-year statute of limitations came into effect, but police continued to search for Nadia as a missing person.
Now the case is closed as far as the police are concerned. According to Det. Superintendet Lars Henriksson of the National Bureau of Investigation, it is most unusual for an abducted child to be found again after such a long interval, especially as the authorities had no inkling of her whereabouts at any time.
“This is quite exceptional. In most other cases we would at least know in which country the person seized was living, but now we did not have any information at all on her whereabouts until July.”
Most cases of abduction of children are connected with custody disputes in mixed marriages.
According to the Finnish police, there are just over a dozen missing children under the age of 16. Their current location is known at least in terms of the country where they are being held.
Four suspected cases of abduction have come to the attention of the police this year, in which a child has been taken abroad in contravention of a court order, or has not been returned to this country after a visit to one of the parents.
A protracted case involving two boys from a failed Finnish-American marriage made extensive headlines a few years ago.
The young woman met with her mother and Finnish police representatives at the Finnish Embassy in Luxembourg in July. The meeting lasted a couple of hours, but the kidnap victim would only exchange a few words with the police officers, apparently showing a considerable degree of suspicion towards them.
Police got on the track of Bouteldja some two years ago, when the girl came of age and contacted her mother by e-mail. This led to a two-year correspondence.
“The entire e-mail correspondence was marked by suspicions of the authorities. Our task was to instil the sort of confidence that would allow such a meeting to take place”, said Det. Insp. Jukka Kaski of the Espoo Police.
Eventually agreement was reached on a date for a meeting. The police were nevertheless in the dark as to where the reunion would take place.
Just two days before mother and daughter were scheduled to get together, information came that Bouteldja would meet her visitors in Luxembourg.
She arrived alone, and would not disclose to police any details of the abduction, of what had happened in the intervening eleven years, or even of her current abode.
Police believe that Bouteldja lives in Luxembourg. They do not believe she is any longer the victim of a crime.
Her father, who was working in Finland in the IT sector, grabbed the nine-year-old from her home and took her away in a car.
The parents were divorced and the girl’s mother had been granted custody of the child.
It is believed that the pair drove to Sweden, taking the long route via Haaparanta in Northern Finland.
The car was found abandoned in Luleå, Sweden, some two months later.
The most recent confident sighting of the missing father and daughter was in Britain later in that same May of 1997.
Espoo police officers were in contact with the father’s family in Algeria.
An international warrant was put out all over the world, and hints and possible sightings were checked out from as far away as Tahiti and Mexico.
The criminal investigation into aggravated abduction was closed in 2007 after the ten-year statute of limitations came into effect, but police continued to search for Nadia as a missing person.
Now the case is closed as far as the police are concerned. According to Det. Superintendet Lars Henriksson of the National Bureau of Investigation, it is most unusual for an abducted child to be found again after such a long interval, especially as the authorities had no inkling of her whereabouts at any time.
“This is quite exceptional. In most other cases we would at least know in which country the person seized was living, but now we did not have any information at all on her whereabouts until July.”
Most cases of abduction of children are connected with custody disputes in mixed marriages.
According to the Finnish police, there are just over a dozen missing children under the age of 16. Their current location is known at least in terms of the country where they are being held.
Four suspected cases of abduction have come to the attention of the police this year, in which a child has been taken abroad in contravention of a court order, or has not been returned to this country after a visit to one of the parents.
A protracted case involving two boys from a failed Finnish-American marriage made extensive headlines a few years ago.
Helsingin Sanomat