Boys held captive by father in Mexico returned to mother
Published: February 21, 2006
Two brothers that were kidnapped by their father from a Palmview elementary school a week ago were reunited with their mother Sunday, said La Joya school district Police Chief Raul Gonzalez.
“They are OK, safe, and they are with their mom at an undisclosed location,” he said. “We are not going to disclose how the kids and mom were reunited.”
Gonzalez said this is a very sensitive case, and he stressed the need to keep open dialogue with all parties involved.
He did not say if Jose German Rodriguez, the boy’s father, had been charged or if he was even back in the United States after taking the children to Reynosa.
“What will happen next is undecided,” Gonzalez said.
The most important thing is that the children have been returned and are safe, he said. The second priority is getting the children back to school, although whether the boys will be returning to E.B. Reyna Elementary — where they were kidnapped from last Monday — was not known.
Shortly before school began on Feb. 13, 31-year-old Jose German Rodriguez broke a restraining order mandating that he stay at least 200 yards away from his sons’ school by taking Brandon Morgan Rodriguez, 8, and Reynaldo Isaac Rodriguez, 5, quietly from the school campus.
La Joya school district Superintendent Filomena Leo said on Feb. 13 that the father, who has a history of family violence, came into the building with the crowd of parents walking their children to class and took his boys.
When police were alerted, Gonzalez tried unsuccessfully to get the Texas Department of Public Safety to issue a state-wide Amber Alert, local police departments and international bridge officials were put on notice and school district police interviewed several family members to determine where Rodriguez may be taking his children.
It was later learned he’d taken the boys to Reynosa, outside of La Joya school district police jurisdiction.
The mother, Claudia Rodriguez, then took matters into her own hands, and went to Reynosa to try to get her sons back despite concerns for her own safety.
Gonzalez did not say if she was successful. He would only say that the children and their mother are together again.
Police are giving the mother and her children “ample time and space.” It was a case of serious concern, Gonzalez said, but “everybody wants to go back to a normal life.”
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