When your child is abducted: One woman's nightmare

‘I just had to be with my child’
“I never knew if Ian would come back to Canada with me in a month, a year or in 10 years,” says Jennifer, recalling her thoughts in the days after her son was gone. “But I knew that at least I could go to Korea and work and live there as a kind of prisoner for however long it took to get him back. I had faith in my own strength. I felt like a mother lion. I just had to be with my child.”

Jennifer set up headquarters in their old apartment and worked the phones for hours every day, contacting the RCMP, Interpol and the Canadian Consulate in Korea with the help of a private detective. Because Korea had not signed the Hague Convention, a treaty that protects children from abduction across international boundaries by ensuring their prompt return, Canadian officials could not force Ed to surrender his child.

Jennifer hired a lawyer and worked with local police so that Ed would be detained at the airport if he came back. Her younger sister, Brenda, took a leave from her job to be with her, to cook meals and provide support. Her mother kept track of all the paperwork, and her dad kept notes of everything.

During the ordeal, Jennifer’s nerves frayed. She started to smoke and rarely slept; her only reprieve from the nightmare was an occasional hour of mindless television. When tears came to her eyes, she wouldn’t allow them to spill over. “I shut down. When I awoke in the morning I would feel this bar of metal form in my body. My emotions would go away and I’d get working, doing whatever I had to do to get my son back.”

Off to Korea
One month after her son disappeared, realizing there was little authorities could do, Jennifer decided to take on the biggest acting role of her life. She would fly to Korea, play the suppliant wife, tell Ed she regretted breaking up with him, try to win his trust and somehow figure out a way to get Ian home.

Before flying to the island where Ed lived, Jennifer stopped over in Seoul to meet the Canadian consul general, who offered help in getting her on a flight to Japan. “I went to Korea not knowing how long I’d have to be there,” says Jennifer. “I wasn’t certain whether I’d be thrown in jail by one of Ed’s family members or if my husband would try to kill me.” Packed in her suitcase were prescription sleeping pills, something she thought might buy her time to escape if she could sneak them into Ed’s food.

When she arrived on the island on Oct. 19, Ed was there to pick her up. While he was distant and uncommunicative, his anger was muted. When they got to the house, Ed plunked down on the floor and turned on the TV, as if this were any ordinary day. After being away from him for 23 days, Jennifer finally got to hold her son in her arms – close, tight and for a long, long time.

“Mommy, why did it take you so long to get here?” he asked.

Out of earshot of Ed, Jennifer whispered, “I didn’t know Daddy was taking you to Korea. I’ll never let this happen again.”

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