FBI seeking Cary mom accused of abducting kids last year
The FBI is seeking the public's help in locating a former Cary woman accused of abducting her children in Mexico last year and refusing court orders to return them to the lawful custody of their father, the agency said Monday.
Sonia Del Carmen Leon De Carol, 43, faces both state and federal charges after taking the children - Andrea, 6, and James, 5 - on a court-approved trip to Mexico City in early June and failing to come back three weeks later as ordered.
After arriving in Mexico City, authorities said, Leon de Carol canceled her plane tickets home and made herself unreachable, except for an occasional e-mail to the children's father. She is now the target of an international manhunt coordinated by the FBI in Chicago.
The father, James Carol, received an e-mail from his former wife as recently as last week, said his attorney, Robert Medansky.
In it, Medansky said, Leon De Carol offered to allow Carol visitation in Mexico if he ended efforts to return the children to the United States. Carol did not accept the offer and turned the communication over to police.
"Apparently she's feeling the pressure," Medansky said. "She's had to hire a lawyer down there. (Carol) is never going to give up trying to get the kids back."
The FBI initially said it was joining the search in September after federal authorities filed a criminal complaint against Leon De Carol for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
Anyone with information about her current whereabouts is asked to call the Chicago FBI at (312) 421-6700 or the McHenry County Sheriff's Office at (815) 338-2144.
Additional information about the case is available on the Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Web site at missingkids.com.
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<li><a href="http://chicago.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel10/cg012510a.htm" target="new">FBI press release</a></li>
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