Son reunited with mother after 13 years
Published: January 24, 2005
Ten years after he was kidnapped by his father from a Lynn apartment and taken to Brazil, 13-year-old David Alexander Ohlson was reunited with his mother Elisa Fernandes in Boston on Thursday.
The reunion comes just a week after Brazilian authorities in Rio de Janeiro arrested Fernandes’ ex-husband, 39-year-old David Gustav Ohlson, following a joint investigation between an FBI agent in Brazil and Lynn police.
Young David arrived at Logan Airport in Boston on Thursday. His father remains detained in the country where they have lived for the past 10 years until a plan to deport him is worked out between Brazilian and local authorities.
The reunion was arranged by the U.S. State Department and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to Lynn Police Lt. John Scannell.
In the company of Brazilian Consulate officials, young David left Brazil at midnight and after changing planes in Miami, arrived in Boston at approximately 11:30 a.m. on Thursday.
Fernandes now lives in Brockton, is remarried and has three other children.
David Olson was kidnapped in August of 1995 when he was 3 years old, after Fernandes was granted custody of the minor following their divorce. In 1995, Lynn police issued a warrant for David Gustav Ohlson’s arrest for parental kidnapping and have received a string of tips related to the case in the past ten years.
It wasn’t until November of 2004 that Lynn police received information about the exact location in Brazil where the Ohlson was living. Lynn police received the information from someone living in Brazil who noticed David Gustav Ohlson’s face on the 10 Most Wanted section of the Lynn Police Department’s Web site. The father and son were located in the Copacabana district of Brazil last week, where David senior was working as a freelance tour guide under an expired foreign visa.
Authorities in Essex County said there is an active warrant for David Gustav Ohlson for parental kidnapping, but officials would not say on Thursday if they intend to prosecute Ohlson on the charges.
“The process and our ability to get him back to this jurisdiction is under review,” said Tom Donovan, assistant Essex County District Attorney.
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