Statute of Limitations

[1990]

I understand there is no statute of limitations or 4 years for kidnapping in the state of Georgia depending on the facts of the case. The kidnapping happened in 1993. The child at time was 2 years old and was taken out of state by the father and never let the mother see the child or know their whereabouts. Now the child is an adult and finally found. What can the mother do about it?

The parents of the child were never married.
The mother tried to tell the police the child was kidnapped but the police told her the father had just as much right to take the child as she did and there was nothing they could do. The mother also went to the courthouse to find out what she could do about finding the child. They told the mother she would need hundreds of thousands of dollars in order for them to even begin to help otherwise they couldn't do anything.

What can the mother do now?

[free9man]

Nothing more now than she could then.

[PTPD22]

I don't know specifically about GA. But, generally, unless dad was in violation of a court custody agreement, what mom was told back then is correct. Even with a custody violation, this is commonly referred to as a custodial interference with much less of a penalty than say a kidnapping for ransom or child abduction. For a custodial interference, I would be very surprised if the SOL had not run out long ago.

And, BTW, I really don't buy that a court told mom they would charge hundreds of thousands of dollars to take action. Maybe a private attorney told her that, but not a prosecutor's office or court. I suspect what actually happened was a prosecutor said that the state would not expend the monetary resources (which might well be hundreds of thousands of dollars) to track down dad for what was, essentially, a civil issue.