A five-year-old boy who was allegedly kidnapped by his foster mother and taken to Vietnam was recently reunited with his birth mother on U.S. soil.
In late November, investigators started searching for a boy, identified as “ND,” after Child Protective Services suspected he was abducted by his foster mother, Amanda Dinges, 35, in Mount Vernon, Washington, according to the city’s police department.
Investigators discovered that ND had been placed in the care of Amanda Dignes by the Department of Youth and Family Services and that she and her mother, Amber Dinges, 60, had possibly left the country with the five-year-old.
Arrest warrants were issued for Amanda and Amber Dinges for second-degree kidnapping, with Mount Vernon police alleging that the abduction was intentional and pre-planned. Police added they believed Amber was complicit in the abduction.
In mid-December, following several interviews and further investigation, authorities narrowed the location of Amanda, Amber, and ND, to Thai Binh, Vietnam, located about 70 miles southeast of Hanoi.
Amanda Dinges, 35, is accused of kidnapping foster child ‘ND.’ (Photo: Mount Vernon Police Department)
Diplomatic Security Service personnel at the United States Consulate in Hanoi were able to successfully locate and secure ND on December 14.
The consulate personnel flew with the five-year-old boy to Tokyo and handed him over to FBI agents, who traveled back to the U.S. with him.
ND arrived in Seattle in the early hours of the morning on December 16, where he was reunited with his birth mother at an undisclosed location.
According to the biological mother’s attorney, Brittany Tri, the boy is recovering well despite the sequence of events.
“She said that he’s doing good, that he was excited to see her,” Tri told Seattle NBC affiliate KING 5 News. “They’re both excited, so the excitement goes both ways, but she did say that he’s very tired.”
“For a 5-year-old boy, ‘ND’ has had a very complex journey. We hope his recovery and return to Washington will be a stabilizing factor for him moving forward,” the Mount Vernon Police Department said in a statement.
Officials are currently seeking to extradite Amanda and Amber Dignes from Vietnam, where they will likely be formally charged and appear in court in Skagit Valley County, where Mount Vernon is located.
ND will now begin transitioning to live with his birth mother, since he was already in the process of transitioning to live with her before he was allegedly kidnapped by Amanda Dinges, according to Tri.
“It doesn’t make sense to put him in a different home that he doesn’t know with strangers, to transition him back to his mother, who’s already done everything she needs to do,” said Tri.
You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.
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