Child abduction case US to Mexico

Location: San Diego, CA present day and Mexico

The main characters in my story are a gay couple with a 6 month old daughter. MC1 is the bio dad. MC1's estranged parents find out about the baby and want to meet her. There's an attempt at reconciliation, but things go haywire (the parents are very religious and disapprove of homosexuality, and they're also pretty unhinged, hence the estrangement). They kidnap the baby and take her to Mexico. They have significant financial resources and are prepared to stay in Mexico illegally indefinitely, although they don't have any contacts there, do not speak Spanish, etc. This is not a very good plan, but like I said, they're unhinged.

I've found several great websites about the laws involved and the steps the parents and law enforcement would take, but I'm having a hard time googling my main question: what would happen if my MCs decided to try to track them down themselves? They would report her missing, so law enforcement would still be involved. But Daddy #2 has a lot of family in Mexico and knows the border area pretty well, and having my MCs just sit around and worry doesn't seem like it would make for a very interesting story!

I'm assuming that law enforcement would discourage this? What if they find them before law enforcement does? I'm guessing one of them would try to stall them while the other called law enforcement.

That would be the wise thing, but people don't always behave wisely in these situations! I suppose could have my MCs go stay with Daddy #2's relatives without specifically having them mount their own rescue mission. I just need for them to do something other than wait around.

Oh yeah, the grandparents are going to be in jail by the end of the story. It's a pretty harebrained scheme. I think that's actually a good idea to have bio-dad go and leave Dad #2 at home. Legally, they are both the parents and their surrogate was Dad #2's sister, so they both have a biological relationship with the baby. Dad#2's parents emigrated from Mexico decades ago, so it wouldn't be with the other set of grandparents -- it would be an aunt, uncle, or cousin. It actually might be fun to have bio-dad and his father-in-law go together. This book is a sequel, and a big part of the first book was Dad#2 reconciling with his father after he reacted badly to him coming out. (This story takes place ten years later.) When bio dad's parents first showed up, father-in-law is like "Hey, I came around! Maybe they will too!" and bio dad is like "...yeah, you don't know my parents." Father in law is a fun character, so that could be entertaining to write.

The grandparents are Jehovah's Witnesses, so I think maybe they go to a church looking for help. That could be a clue as to their whereabouts. What I would really like to happen is for bio dad to find his mom and the baby before the police do and convince her to give herself up, as it's the dad who's the more militant of the two of them and he might be able to talk her down.

frimble3 said:

And, even if the family immigrated decades earlier, they've still got family in Mexico, which beats the non-Spanish speaking grandparents.
I don't know how you want your story to go, but could it be that exploring the characters fill in the space at the beginning that would otherwise be chase/escape/pursuit? There's a baby involved, you can't have too many car crashes and grabbing and running.

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The kidnapping actually comes at the 75% mark in the story. The arc of the book is bio-dad learning to stand up to his abusive parents. Instead of coming out to them, he just left as soon as he was old enough with no explanation. When his younger sister came of age, she went looking for him and also cut ties with her parents. But then the sister either gets into an accident or has some sort of medical catastrophe (haven't decided which yet, although I kind of want her to have a stroke. It's rare for someone in her twenties, but not unheard of.)

Anyway, bio dad feels compelled to inform his parents, who live on the east coast, which means he also has to tell them that they have a granddaughter. They fly in from the east coast. Sister is in a coma. Dad#2's family (who are all a bunch of capital-C characters) try to make them welcome, but it goes over very poorly. Bio-dad is also dealing with their presence in a less than optimal way -- since he never worked out his issues with his parents and is still terrified of his dad at some level, he all but shoves his husband into the closet, which obviously causes a lot of drama. Sister regains consciousness, but is unable to make her wishes known. Her parents decide that they want to take her "home" to take care of her -- but of course, due to their religion and their estranged relationship, it seems likely that they wouldn't be making decisions about her health that she would agree with. She never set up a power of attorney, so there's a legal battle between bio-dad and the parents, which the parents lose.

At that point, the parents have essentially lost both of their kids, and Dad#2 finally gets sick of their behavior and says they aren't welcome anymore and will never see their granddaughter again. That's when they snap and kidnap the baby. So having bio-dad be the one to be in Mexico working with the authorities and looking for his folks actually works well with the theme of the story. He'll also have a final confrontation with his parents after it's all over where he's able to complete his character arc of moving on from his past. Book 1 was about how it's possible to heal family ties even when there's been a lot of hurt. Book 2 is about how sometimes that's not possible, and you've got to learn to live with it.

autumnleaf said:

Or maybe get the bio-mom involved. Presumably she's close to her brother (volunteering as a surrogate mom is no small thing) and she would gain some sympathy as both bio-mom and aunt -- also, the Mexican family are her family too.

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That is a BRILLIANT idea! Yes, they are very close with the sister, and she's also a fun character. Believe it or not, even with all the drama this is supposed to be a dramedy, so having father in law and sister in law along for the ride opens up some room for levity.