A 35-year-old Utah woman allegedly abducted her four children and fled to Europe, telling one of the fathers she feared the “end times” were near, triggering an international search and a desperate legal battle to bring the children home.
Surveillance footage reviewed by ABC4 shows Elleshia Anne Seymour boarding a one-way Delta Air Lines flight from Salt Lake City International Airport on November 30 with the four children. The flight was bound for Croatia with a stop in Netherlands.
Authorities realised Seymour and the children were missing only after she failed to report to work and stopped responding to messages, prompting a welfare check at her home on December 2. That same day, Seymour reportedly left a voicemail for one of the fathers saying she was in France and intended to seek permanent residence there because she believed catastrophic events were imminent.
Her ex-husband Kendall Seymour has accused her of international child abduction. In a fundraising appeal, he wrote that all three of his children, along with Seymour’s fourth child from another relationship, had been taken overseas without consent.
The children—aged between 3 and 11—have been identified as Landon Hal Seymour (11), Levi Parker Seymour (8), Hazel Rae Seymour (7), and Jacob Kurt Brady (3). Kendall Seymour shares custody of the three eldest.
The Utah Department of Public Safety issued an endangered and missing advisory on December 10, naming Seymour as the alleged abductor. Investigators claim she forged passport documents to board the international flight, left her car at the airport, and abandoned personal items at home.
According to the father, a note left behind referenced what he described as a “delusional message from God,” promising she would reach Italy by Christmas. A handwritten to-do list allegedly instructed her to shred paperwork, destroy identifying photos, discard her phone, and buy a prepaid handset.
Officials believe Seymour and the children remain somewhere in Europe as efforts continue to trace their movements and initiate international recovery proceedings