PROVIDENCE – A North Smithfield woman who allegedly abruptly and without permission removed her five minor children from the United States has been released on unsecured bond and GPS monitoring following her arraignment in federal court on Friday, July 12, and charged by way of indictment with international parental kidnapping.
Jessica Abreu, 33, allegedly moved her five children, all under the age of 16, to Alabama in December 2021, and within months moved them to Tanzania without the knowledge of the children’s father, according to a release from U.S. Attorney Zachary Cunha.
In May of 2022, several months after a Rhode Island Family Court judge presided over a nominal divorce hearing for Abreu and the children’s father, one of the children reportedly texted her father and stated that she would miss him. The father later learned that Abreu had moved with the children to Tanzania without his knowledge.
According to court documents, the father had scheduled a June 3, 2022, visitation with the children, but Abreu and the children did not appear for the visit. A Rhode Island state court judge scheduled a July 19, 2022, hearing on the matter, for which Abreu failed to appear. In August 2022, a Rhode Island Family Court magistrate judge signed an order awarding joint legal custody to Abreu and her ex-husband, and determined the state of Rhode Island as the, “home state,” of the children. Five days later, the family court found Abreu in violation of the court order; that she was in violation of applicable federal kidnapping statutes by taking the children to Tanzania and not returning to the United States; and she was ordered to return to the United States with all of the children. The children’s father was awarded sole legal custody and physical placement of the children.
On June 1 of this year, Abreu and her children reportedly boarded a flight landing in Los Angeles International Airport. Agents from the FBI and the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth, and Families met the plane. Abreu was taken into custody by the FBI and the children were reunited with their father.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Christine Lowell and John McAdams.
This is horrible!!! This woman gave birth to them children, and have every right to move wherever she pleases with her children. Who gives anyone the right to tell someone where they can and cannot move to, with their own children!!! And then take her rights away and give the ex the children!!! She did nothing wrong!!! The ex is just deceitful!!! Shame what this world is coming to!!!!
Exactly….. THEIR children. What gives one parent the right to take children away from the other?!
Hate to tell you…they’re the children of the father too. He has certain rights as a parent, and one is visitation rights. And, ah yes, they can limit her movements if they violate the rights of visitation of the father. She did plenty wrong…