A 9-year-old boy missing from Seattle since early September was found in Niue, an island in the South Pacific, more than 7,000 miles away from his Pennsylvania home.
Billy Hanson was last seen with his father, Jeffrey Ford Hanson, at Shilshole Bay Marina in Seattle on Aug. 30 and didn’t board his flight when he was scheduled to
return to his mother in Philadelphia on Sept. 4, The Seattle Times reported.
Jeffrey Ford Hanson is charged with international parental kidnapping.
An international search focused on a yacht owned by Hanson, and the boy and his father were found on the coral atoll.
Niue residents had joined the search for the boy.
“I saw him at a barbecue on Friday and he did not look stressed,”
islander Michael Jackson said of the 9-year-old, according to The Guardian. “He had a Niue T-shirt on and was enjoying himself.”
Jeffrey Hanson was granted monthly visitation rights after
he and the boy’s mother, Joanna Hanson, divorced, the Times Leader reported.
Joanna Hanson told the FBI that her ex-husband had a history of alcohol abuse and that his friends had told her that he was using methamphetamine, the Times Leader said.
Friends or former friends described Jeffrey Hanson as mentally unstable, and a bank employee told the FBI that he had drawn down his bank accounts to near zero balances on Aug. 18, the newspaper reported.
“We are grateful to law enforcement authorities in Niue for their exceptional efforts in finding Billy Hanson and taking Jeffrey Hanson in to custody,” FBI Special Agent Frank Montoya Jr. said in a statement. “Their actions underscore the value of the FBI’s partnerships around the world. These partnerships allow us to work effectively to uphold the rule of law and ensure justice is served.”
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