Father of abducted kids may have felt pressured

Jace Radke

Friday, Oct. 31, 2003 | 11:50 a.m.

Natalie Delgadillo said she began to weep last week when she was reunited with her children, four years after their father took them.

"I saw my three children, and my son said, 'Hi mom,' and I just grabbed them up and hugged them all," Delgadillo said. "It felt so good to be with them again, and I didn't want to let them go."

Delgadillo's children -- Rudy, 9, Vanessa, 11, and Veronica, 12, -- had not seen their mother since being taken by their father to Mexico in October 1999. Enrique Delgadillo left with the children because Natalie Delgadillo had filed for divorce, she said.

"I don't know what was going through his mind, but I think he was just scared of losing the kids in the divorce, because he loves them too," Natalie Delgadillo said. "I didn't have any contact with my kids for four years.

"I'd hear stories that someone had seen them in a store, or that they were out begging in the street. There were a lot of ups and downs, and a lot of time worrying and crying."

The attorney general's office became involved in the case after obtaining a felony arrest warrant for the father shortly after the children were taken. The warrant charges the father with abduction. The State Department also got involved in the search for the three children, taking reports and tips from family members and people that spotted the children in Mexico and San Diego, said April Lavergne, of the Nevada Missing Children Clearinghouse.

But in the end it was Enrique Delgadillo who called his ex-wife to arrange for the children to be sent home to Las Vegas, Natalie Delgadillo said.

"He told me he was tired of running, and that he wanted something better for his kids," she said.

The children are now scheduled to be in a Clark County school starting Monday.

During a press conference Thursday at the Grant Sawyer Building, the children said they missed their father. But they said they were happy to be in Las Vegas and not always traveling to avoid authorities.

Vanessa Delgadillo said she is getting to know her youngest brother, 5-year-old Albert, who was not taken by his father because he was a toddler when the abduction occurred.

While their mother and sister answered questions Albert Delgadillo and his newfound brother Rudy laughed as they chased each other through the revolving doors at the Sawyer Building.

"I thought my mom and dad would get back together," Vanessa said. "I'm happy to be back (in Las Vegas) with my mom, my grandma, grandpa, cousins and aunts and uncles."

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which works with the State Department on such cases, had placed posters in Ensenada, the city where the children's father was believed to be hiding the children. An anonymous tipster would call from time to time with information about the children, Lavergne said.

"I think he (Enrique Delgadillo) knew that the pressure was on and that sooner or later he'd get caught," Lavergne said.

Enrique Delgadillo signed custody of the children over to his wife last week in a Mexican court, but he is still wanted in the United States.

"That warrant remains active, and when he steps over the border he will be arrested," said Lavergne, who added that Delgadillo faces no charges in Mexico.

Natalie Delgadillo bears her husband no ill will, however, and wants him to continue to be in contact with their children.

"I will let them talk to their father on the phone, and I will send him pictures and videos, because I don't want him to miss out on seeing them grow up like I did," Natalie Delgadillo said. "I hope he deals with the trouble he's in and then maybe the kids can see him again."

She said she believes her ex-husband's father, a police officer in Mexico, may have helped keep the children hidden by sharing information with his son.

Runaways, abductions, custody disputes and other problems are blamed in the 7,512 cases of children reported missing in Nevada in 2002, Lavergne said. She said 252 cases were because of parental custody issues.

Experts say international child abduction -- foreign-born spouses taking the couple's child or children to another country when the marriage ends -- is a growing trend and prolonged cases like Delgadillo's are not uncommon.

Mexico is the country to which the highest number of U.S. children are abducted -- about 15 percent of the 1,100 incidents each year, the State Department said.

Despite national and international government efforts to address the problem, abduction experts say that parents on U.S. soil in these type of cases face a maze of false leads, rip-off artists, officials limited in their powers and a lack of reliable contacts in foreign countries.