WATCH: It’s a complicated tale of a marriage gone bad and a child abduction. Monica Martinez reports.
Exactly two years ago Monday, same sex partners Tasha Brown and Lauren Etchells celebrated the birth of their daughter Kaydance.
“That day I cried tears of happiness,” Brown said in a news conference at the Saanich Police Department.
Monday, Brown desperately pleaded for the return of her abducted daughter.
“You can never begin to know the suffering of not knowing where your child is,” she said.
The two Vancouver Island women got together in 2009, marrying three years later.
They wanted a child and conceived using a sperm donor and Etchells’ egg, with the biological mom giving birth to their child a year later.
“Kaydance, I love you and miss you and your love. You are the rainbow in my sky and the rhythm in my life.”
But last summer, the relationship began to sour and two women separated.
Brown suspected Etchells, who also has British citizenship, was going to leave Canada with their child so she got a court order requiring Kaydance to stay on Vancouver Island.
But despite that, Etchells and her new partner Marco van der Merwe and their new born child, Marcus, took Kaydance to London, England.
“It is unknown where they are living but it is believed they are living somewhere in Europe,” said Saanich Police Sgt. Jereme Leslie.
Etchells’ parents who are also U.K. citizens have left Canada.
Van der Merwe, who is of South African descent, is in Qatar where he works as a robotics engineer.
“We don’t feel that she’s in an unsafe environment but the matter is that she’s supposed to be living in B.C. as a Canadian citizen,” Sgt. Leslie said.
Brown said the last five months have been a painful misery.
“Every day I wonder where you are and I wonder if you are alright. I wonder if you are walking more, laughing or crying,” said a tearful Brown.
She hopes this public plea will lead to information that might locate her daughter, so that the only tears on her 3rd birthday, will be ones of joy.
Police have issued a Canada-wide warrant for Lauren Etchells’ arrest.
The 31-year-old is facing one count of abduction which carries a 10 year maximum penalty and two counts of disobeying a court order, which carries a 2 year maximum penalty.
Saanich Police are working closely several agencies including the RCMP’s International Child Abduction unit and Interpol to try to locate the family.
For photos of the family, visit this Facebook page.
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