One might think that young kids are typically going to be safe when they’re traveling somewhere with a parent, but when the trip is overseas without the other parents’ authorization, it’s a whole different story. In December 2025, an endangered and missing advisory report went out after a Utah mom apparently took her four kids unlawfully on an international flight overseas with no intentions of returning to the United States. Her four kids were later found in a Croatian orphanage, and the mother, 35-year-old Elleshia Anne Seymour, was arrested in that country.
The West Jordan, Utah, mom disappeared with her four children, ranging in ages from 11 to 3 years old, over the Thanksgiving holiday in 2025, and they were last seen on surveillance video at the Salt Lake City International Airport boarding a plane to Europe, Us Weekly reported.
In January 2026, Seymour was arrested in Croatia after the 13-year-old son of the woman the family was staying with told his mom that there was an endangered and missing advisory out on her four kids, ABC 4 reported. Reportedly, the woman convinced Seymour to go to their local police department, where they were both taken into custody, and the four Seymour children and the 13-year-old were placed in a state-run orphanage.
The kids’ father, who is the biological dad of three of the children and has power of attorney for the fourth child, has been working to get his children out of the orphanage and bring them home, according to WAGM. Kenny Seymour told the Associated Press that he is in Croatia and has been visiting the children while he completes paperwork to get them out of the Croatian foster care system.
Kendall Seymour, grandfather to three of the children, spoke to ABC 4 about how they are now “dealing with an entire legal process to get the kids back.” The grandfather shares the “frustrating” process, as even though his son, Kenny, has birth certificates with him and “court documentation” saying that he’s their father and has custody, they’ve been told that a judge in Croatia has to sign something for the kids to be formally released.
There are reports the children’s mother took her kids overseas “because she believed the ‘end times'” were coming in the United States, based on statements she made to family and friends, on social media, and evidence found in her home, per ABC 4.
As long as the children are secured and can quickly return home with their father and family, a happy ending can happen in this ongoing story filled with twists and turns. Let’s hope everyone is safe and physically unharmed.
