9.6.09

Mother arrested for allegedly kidnapping daughter(Albuquerque, New Mexico)

·

 

Agents arrested Sierra Laurel Snyder outside a women's shelter in Albuquerque for allegedly violating a 2005 Hoopa Valley Tribal Court custody order granting custody of the child to her father. She was with her daughter.

http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_12551277

Hoopa mother arrested for allegedly kidnapping daughter

Sean Garmire/The Times-Standard

Posted: 06/09/2009 01:15:29 AM PDT

Federal agents arrested a Hoopa woman in Albuquerque after she allegedly abducted her daughter and fled to New Mexico.

According to United States Marshal Brad Gill, on June 2 agents arrested Sierra Laurel Snyder outside a women's shelter in Albuquerque for allegedly violating a 2005 Hoopa Valley Tribal Court custody order granting custody of the child to her father. She was with her daughter.

Snyder was arrested and booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque and awaits possible extradition to Humboldt County to face one felony charge of child abduction and a misdemeanor charge of probation violation.

According to Gill, Snyder took her daughter from Hoopa to New Mexico in 2003. There, Snyder reportedly married and lived with her daughter until 2009.

Gill said Snyder returned to Hoopa with her daughter and was arrested in March on suspicion of abducting her daughter. She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge, Gill said.

After she was released, Snyder and her child remained in Hoopa together, and she began slowly transitioning her daughter's care over to the biological father.

”But then, for some reason, she decided to flee again and took the daughter with her,” Gill said. “She was depriving the father of his custodial rights, and our immediate intent was to locate her and recover the daughter to get her back to her dad.”

The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office received a report of the abduction

and requested the aid of the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force. The Hoopa Valley Tribe and Bernalillo County Child Welfare Services also assisted in the case.

Gill said arrangements have been made for the father to transport his daughter back to Hoopa from Albuquerque.

Sean Garmire can be reached at 441-0514 or sgarmire@times-standard.com.